What's in Season in November in Australia

November is the month stone fruit arrives. Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia all pick their first cherries, and the first apricots, peaches and nectarines come in alongside them. If you have been waiting since March, this is the month it ends.

It is also a handover month, and that is the part worth understanding. Several crops are finishing in the north as they start in the south, so what "in season" means depends heavily on which state you are standing in. Everything below is harvest months, when growers are actually picking, not when a supermarket has stock.

Stone fruit starts in the south

Cherries are the headline. Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia start in November, and New South Wales and South Australia go straight to their peak. A cherry season lasts six to eight weeks in any one district, so the first weeks matter. Western Australia does not start until December, and Tasmania waits until January.

Apricots begin in Victoria and South Australia. They are the first stone fruit of summer and the shortest season of the four, with most of the crop coming from Victoria's Goulburn Valley and South Australia's Riverland. Peaches and nectarines start in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia, though neither reaches its peak in Victoria or New South Wales before January.

So buy the cherries now and be patient with the peaches. An early-season peach is a peach in the same way a rehearsal is a concert.

The last good weeks of asparagus

Asparagus is one of the most clearly seasonal vegetables in the country, and Victoria grows nearly all of it. Victoria's peak runs September to November and the season is over after December. New South Wales finishes in November.

Peas follow the same curve: at their peak in Victoria now, and only just starting in Tasmania. If you want either at its best from a grower's table in Victoria, November is the last month to count on.

Strawberries change states

This one surprises people. Queensland and Western Australia grow strawberries through winter, and both finish in November. Victoria and South Australia are entering their peak in the same month, and Tasmania picks its first.

It means a strawberry at a Brisbane market in November is the end of a season and one at a Melbourne market is the start of the best part of another. They are two seasons that happen to meet, not one long one.

Mangoes, and the rest of the north

The mango season runs north to south. The Northern Territory has been picking since August and is at its peak in October and November. Western Australia peaks in November. Queensland started in October and peaks in December and January.

Queensland has the longest list of anything in the country this month, with 24 crops being picked. Pineapple, papaya and banana are all at their peak, and watermelon and sweet potato have just started. Pineapple is in its last month.

Blueberries sit across both halves. New South Wales grows most of the country's crop and is at its peak. Queensland and Western Australia are in their final peak month. Victoria and Tasmania do not start until December.

New season garlic

Most garlic sold in Australia is imported, which makes November worth noticing. Garlic is harvested from September in Queensland through to January in Tasmania and then cured, so new season Australian garlic reaches markets from about now. New South Wales harvests in November and South Australia starts.

What is still a month away

You might be thinking November sounds like summer already. Fair, but the summer vegetables are not here yet in the south. Field tomatoes in Victoria and New South Wales start in December and do not peak until January. Zucchini, capsicum and green beans in Victoria are December crops too. Queensland's winter tomato season ends this month, so November is a gap between the two.

Lychees are also December, in a short Queensland season around Christmas.

Tasmania is the quiet one

Tasmania has six crops being picked in November, the shortest list of any state. Carrots and cauliflower are finishing, and celery, peas and strawberries have just started. The island's berries and stone fruit come later than everyone else's, which is the reason Tasmanian cherries turn up in January when the mainland is done.

Use the state pages

A national list hides all of this. What matters is your own state, and each has its own page: Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania. They update with the month, so they will be right in December without anybody touching them.

Eating with the seasons explains why the calendar splits this way, and farmers markets are where you will find the growers. Go for the cherries. They will not be this good for long.