There’s something deeply satisfying about shopping for produce at its peak. Tomatoes in February actually taste like tomatoes—sweet, acidic, complex. The same tomato in July is a pale imitation, shipped from Queensland and picked weeks early.

I’ve been doing the market rounds in Melbourne for years now, and I’ve learned which vendors know their growers, which stalls are just reselling wholesale produce, and where to find the genuinely seasonal treasures.

Here’s what’s good right now and where to find it.

What’s Actually Seasonal in Late February

Before we talk about markets, let’s talk about what you should be looking for.

Tomatoes are at their absolute peak. Heirlooms, oxhearts, cherry varieties—they’re all brilliant right now. The good vendors will let you taste before you buy. If they won’t, that’s a sign the tomatoes aren’t worth tasting.

Stone fruit is winding down but still excellent. Late-season peaches and nectarines, early plums. The white-fleshed peaches are particularly good this year.

Figs are having a moment. Black genoas, brown turkeys—they’re appearing at the better markets and they’re spectacular. Eat them within two days or they’ll turn to mush.

Zucchini and summer squash are everywhere. Look for the small ones—they’re sweeter and less watery. The huge zucchinis are better for grating into fritters or bread.

Eggplant in every variety. The long Asian eggplants are perfect for grilling, the round Italian ones for parmigiana.

Corn is excellent if you can find it truly fresh. The sugars convert to starch quickly after picking, so you want corn that was harvested that morning if possible.

Prahran Market: Quality Over Volume

Prahran is my regular market. It’s not the cheapest, but the quality is consistently high and the vendors actually know their produce.

Mediterranean Wholesalers has the best tomatoes I’ve found in Melbourne. They work directly with growers in Werribee and the Mornington Peninsula. Their heirlooms are extraordinary—Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Green Zebra—varieties you won’t see in supermarkets.

Expect to pay $8-12 per kilo for heirlooms, which sounds expensive until you taste them. They’re easily twice as flavorful as standard tomatoes.

Essential Ingredient isn’t strictly a market stall, but they’re in the market building and they stock specialty produce. This is where I get properly seasonal things like fresh borlotti beans (available for maybe six weeks a year) or fresh chickpeas when they appear briefly in spring.

The organic stalls at the southern end have excellent stone fruit right now. The prices are high—$12-15 per kilo for organic peaches—but the flavor is noticeably better than conventional fruit.

Go early (8am) if you want the best selection. By 11am, the good stuff is picked over.

Queen Victoria Market: Volume and Variety

Vic Market is overwhelming if you don’t have a strategy. There are too many stalls, too much mediocre produce mixed with excellent stuff, and aggressive vendors shouting prices.

But if you know where to look, it’s brilliant for volume buying and variety.

The Greek-run stalls on the eastern side of the fruit and veg section (I don’t know their official names, but you’ll know them by the older Greek men running them) have excellent tomatoes and eggplant. The quality is comparable to Prahran at about 60% of the price.

Johnny’s Fruit Factory (the one with the loud spruiker) actually has good produce if you’re buying in volume. Their prices are aggressively competitive—$3-4 per kilo for tomatoes, half what Prahran charges. The quality is a tier below, but for cooking where you need 2-3kg of tomatoes, it’s perfectly adequate.

Tomato City (near the meat section) is where I buy tomatoes for passata and sauce. They sell seconds—cosmetically imperfect tomatoes at about $2 per kilo. You’ll spend 10 minutes cutting out blemishes, but for making sauce it doesn’t matter.

The organic section near the deli has seasonal specialties. I found fresh figs there last week at $15 per punnet (about 8-10 figs). Expensive, but they were perfect.

Parking is terrible. Take the tram or get there before 7am.

South Melbourne Market: The Balanced Option

South Melbourne is less chaotic than Vic Market, cheaper than Prahran, and the quality is solid across the board.

Tomato Man (everyone calls him that, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an actual sign) has excellent heirlooms and standard varieties. He knows his produce and will tell you which tomatoes are best for salads vs. cooking.

The stall near the meat section that sells biodynamic produce (again, terrible with names, sorry) has beautiful stone fruit and the best corn I’ve found in Melbourne. They get deliveries Tuesday and Friday, so Wednesday and Saturday mornings are when stock is freshest.

Pino’s Fruit and Veg at the market’s center has good all-around produce at fair prices. Nothing extraordinary, but consistently solid quality.

The market is less tourist-heavy than Vic Market, so vendors are more willing to have actual conversations about their produce. Ask where things are from, when they were picked, what’s particularly good this week. Most of them will happily tell you.

Farmers’ Markets: Worth the Effort

The proper farmers’ markets—Collingwood, Abbotsford Convent, CERES—are a different experience. You’re buying directly from growers, the produce is usually picked within 24 hours, and the quality reflects it.

Collingwood Children’s Farm Market (Saturday mornings) is small but excellent. The tomato grower there has varieties I’ve never seen anywhere else. Last week they had Yellow Pear tomatoes—tiny, golden, intensely sweet.

The prices are high by market standards but justified by the quality and the knowledge you’re supporting small-scale growers directly.

Abbotsford Convent Market (fourth Saturday of each month) is worth the trip if you’re serious about produce. Limited vendors but curated quality. The corn vendor there sells bicolor corn that’s genuinely sweet enough to eat raw.

CERES Market (Wednesday and Saturday) has expanded in the last year and the quality has improved. Good selection of organic produce and some specialty growers.

The main limitation of farmers’ markets is timing—they’re typically one or two days per week, so you need to plan your cooking around market day.

What I Actually Do

I hit South Melbourne Market most weeks for basics—tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, whatever looks good. It’s close to me and the quality-to-price ratio is best there.

Once or twice a month I’ll go to Prahran specifically for heirloom tomatoes or when I want something special for a particular dish.

I’ll sometimes drive to Collingwood Children’s Farm Market if I’m making something where produce quality really matters—a simple tomato salad, for instance, where there’s nowhere for mediocre tomatoes to hide.

How to Shop Markets Well

A few things I’ve learned:

Go with a flexible plan. Have ideas for what you might cook, but let what’s best at the market guide your actual decisions. I went to South Melbourne planning to make eggplant parmigiana last week and ended up making tomato salad instead because the heirlooms were too good to cook.

Taste when you can. Good vendors encourage tasting. Bad vendors get defensive about it. That tells you something.

Ask questions. Where is this from? When was it picked? What’s particularly good today? Vendors who care about their produce love talking about it.

Buy small quantities of unfamiliar things. If you’ve never cooked with Black Krim tomatoes, buy two, not two kilos.

Bring cash. Most stalls take cards now, but cash still gets you better service and sometimes better prices.

Why It Matters

Supermarkets have trained us to expect every produce item year-round. You can buy tomatoes in July and stone fruit in winter, but they’re wan, flavorless versions of what they should be.

Shopping seasonally and locally doesn’t just taste better—it reconnects you with the rhythm of the year. February means tomatoes and stone fruit. April means apples and pears. October means asparagus.

That rhythm makes cooking more interesting and more sustainable. You’re eating what’s abundant and at its best, not what’s been shipped halfway around the world and ripened artificially.

Also, it just tastes better. That’s reason enough.

For more Melbourne food resources, check out CERES Fair Food for farmers’ market schedules and Sustainable Table for seasonal eating guides.