Spring is the leanest stretch of the New Zealand food year, and almost nobody says so. The winter crops are bolting, the summer ones are weeks away, and the shelves fill the gap with imports. Knowing what’s genuinely local right now is what makes spring eating good rather than expensive.
Gardeners have a name for this period — the hungry gap. It’s the stretch between the last of the stored winter vegetables and the first real summer harvest, and it exists in the shops as much as in the garden. It’s also short, and there are a handful of things at their absolute best in it. Asparagus alone justifies the season.
Here’s what’s actually in season in New Zealand right now, what’s arriving over the next few weeks, and what’s quietly been flown in. If you’d rather grow it than buy it, see our spring planting guide.
Asparagus — the one to build meals around
New Zealand asparagus runs from September to March, with the high season falling in November and December. Early-season spears in September and October come at a premium; by November the price drops and the quality is at its peak. It’s grown commercially in the Waikato, Horowhenua and South Canterbury.
Two things worth knowing at the shop. Fresh asparagus squeaks — rub two spears together and you’ll hear it. Older stock feels rubbery and has dried, split ends. And it deteriorates fast after cutting, so treat it like a cut flower: stand the bunch upright in a centimetre or two of water in the fridge, or wrap the butt ends in damp paper towel. Asparagus is mostly water, and the difference between a spear eaten the day it’s bought and one that’s sat a week is not subtle.
Don’t overthink the cooking. Hot pan, olive oil, two or three minutes, salt. Snapping the woody end off where it breaks naturally is the whole preparation.
What else is genuinely in season
New potatoes
The first new-season potatoes appear through spring and climb toward the Christmas crop. Thin-skinned, waxy and sweet in a way stored potatoes aren’t — they want boiling and butter, not a complicated recipe. Early ones are expensive; they get cheaper every week from here.
Avocados
Spring is the good stretch, with the Bay of Plenty season in full swing. This is when New Zealand avocados are at their most affordable and most reliably ripe — a reversal of the rest of the year, when they’re either imported or priced like a luxury.
The last of the citrus
Navel oranges, tangelos and grapefruit carry through early spring, much of it out of Gisborne, and then taper off. Buy them while they’re here — the alternative from December onward is imported.
Leafy greens
Spinach and silverbeet are abundant and cheap right now, which is the useful thing about spring greens: they’re at their best exactly when the rest of the shelf is thin. Lettuce, rocket and Asian greens are all in good supply too.
Kūmara
Stored kūmara is good value through spring, and it holds its quality in storage better than most root crops. Our kūmara nutrition guide covers what it actually does nutritionally — including the resistant starch that forms when it’s cooked and then cooled.
Carrots, beetroot and cauliflower
Carrots and beetroot carry over from winter and are still good buying — they just move from roasting tray to salad bowl as the weather turns. Cauliflower comes good again in late spring.
Arriving shortly
- Strawberries — the first ones show in late spring and are freely available by November. Early-season berries are expensive and often disappointing; November onward is when they’re worth it.
- Broad beans and peas — the first local ones appear through spring, and fresh peas are a genuinely different vegetable from frozen.
- Courgettes — the leading edge of the summer glut.
- Rhubarb — comes away strongly in spring after the winter dormancy.
What to be sceptical of right now
The hungry gap is exactly when the produce section relies most heavily on imports and glasshouse growing, and it’s rarely signposted.
- Summer fruit in September. Stone fruit, grapes and berries on the shelf this early are almost certainly imported. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you’re paying a premium for fruit that has travelled a long way and been picked well short of ripe.
- Field tomatoes. NZ tomatoes in spring are glasshouse-grown. Perfectly good, but the flavour that makes a summer tomato worth eating isn’t there yet, and the price doesn’t reflect that.
- Anything described as “fresh” without a country of origin. Checking the label is a two-second habit that changes what ends up in the trolley.
Why seasonal eating is worth the small effort
Eating seasonally needs no rules, no tracking and no subscription, which already puts it ahead of most things marketed as diets. In-season produce is picked closer to ripe and travels less, it’s cheaper because supply is high, and the variety across a year happens by default rather than by effort — which matters, because plant diversity is one of the better-supported levers in gut health.
It’s also the cheapest way to eat well. Spring asparagus in November costs a fraction of spring asparagus in September, for a better product.
The bottom line
Spring is a lean few weeks with a couple of genuine highlights. Eat asparagus, and eat more of it once the price drops in November. Buy avocados while the Bay of Plenty crop is running. Lean on spinach, silverbeet and stored kūmara through the gap, finish the citrus before it goes, and hold off on strawberries and summer fruit for a few more weeks. It’s a short season, and it’s about to get a great deal easier.
For the other end of the year, our NZ winter produce guide covers the cold months.
Sources and further reading
- Vegetables.co.nz: Asparagus — season dates, selection and storage, from the NZ vegetable industry body
- Vegetables.co.nz: NZ vegetable seasonal availability chart (PDF)
Seasonal availability shifts year to year with weather and region, and retail supply can run ahead of or behind the field season. Information current as of September 2026.
