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Published Aug 2024
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Travel & Touring| WA Things to Do
16 January, 2023 By: Monique Ceccato
Fertile soil, temperate weather, and never-ending expanses of land ideal for farming: it's no wonder Western Australia can grow so much world class produce.
Fancy a foodie road trip? Follow your stomach around the state and drop into these towns to fill it with some mighty fine produce.
RELATED: 21 events across WA that are worth the trip »
Donnybrook
What to try: apples
Season: March to May
Donnybrook takes pride in its appointment as the apple capital of the state; so much, in fact, that one of the South West town’s biggest attractions is the free entry ‘Apple Fun Park’ at its heart. The huge playground is a labyrinth of slides, swings, flying foxes, and apple crate towers, all made in suitably apple-like colours of red and green.
You don’t have to stray far from the park to find the real deal, either. A five-minute walk up the road will have you at the Fruit Barn, a fresh fruit and vegetable outlet supplied by local orchards and farms. The hero around here is the Granny Smith apple, as it was the first apple tree planted in the region in 1900. But they also sell pink ladies, sundowners, and the deep purple Manjimup-bred Bravo apple.
Donnybrook celebrates its apple harvest each March at the Donnybrook Festival. But the show has changed its focus a little since it began in the 50s and now encompasses pears and other produce that grows around the region.
Carnarvon
What to try: bananas
Season: year-round
If you’re a banana fan, you’ve not doubt already tried the Carnarvon variety because up to 80 per cent of bananas found in Perth stores get trucked down from the town’s riverside plantations. It’s easy to distinguish the Gascoyne fruits from their interstate counterparts as they tend to be smaller and sweeter. But no banana is sweeter than when eaten straight from the source.
Just like papaya, pumpkins and cherry tomatoes — a few of the many fruits and vegetables grown in Carnarvon — bananas are in season year-round. Stroll the Saturday morning Gascoyne Grower’s Markets (May to October) at the Carnarvon Visitors Centre and add some to your basket.
Better still, follow the town’s renowned Fruit Loop Trail along North and South River roads to the plantations themselves. Buy fresh by the kilo at any one of their farm gates, or try a famous frozen banana from Morel’s Orchard. Coated in chocolate, they’re the ultimate Carnarvon heat-beating treat.
Save your visit for the Gascoyne Food Festival (September) for more creative applications, where the humble banana shows up on plenty of the ticketed event menus in both sweet and savoury dishes.
Geraldton
What to try: crayfish
Season: year-round
Though the western rock lobster is as common as whiting and mulloway in the waters around Geraldton and the Abrolhos Islands, its firm, rich, and slightly sweet flesh is still considered a highly prized catch.
If you’ve got your rock lobster recreational fishing licence, nothing stops you from fetching your allocated daily quota (eight) from the reef off Geraldton yourself. They’re also easy enough to get your hands on if you don’t hold a licence. Join a lobster pot-pulling tour with Eco Abrolhos, and walk in the shoes of a cray fisherman for a day, taking home a portion of the catch to cook up yourself. An easier route to deliciousness is to buy directly from the Geraldton Fisherman’s Cooperative at their Brolos Fresh store.
You can also tour the cooperative’s headquarters during the annual Shore Leave Festival in late April, learning the ins and outs of the hugely successful and sustainable western rock lobster fishery industry as you go. Outside at the festival markets, buy from the back of the boat and have your purchase barbecued to perfection in front of you. The festival’s pinnacle is the ticketed Abrolhos Island Long Table Lunch, reached by boat or small plane. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime beachside feast with more local scallops, fish, and crayfish than you can eat.
Harvey
What to try: cheese and dairy
Season: year-round
Where Geraldton is known for its seafood, the Harvey Region is known for its agricultural commodities, namely dairy. Some of the state’s most prominent names in the game — Harvey Fresh and Brownes — have had depots there for more than 50 years, collecting milk from the surrounding farms and bottling it to send across the state.
While neither depot is open to the public, you can tuck into some fine examples of the region’s dairy products at Harvey (HaVe) Cheese’s cellar door. Taste your way through their handcrafted cheese range, then sit down and enjoy a coffee or ice cream while watching their resident sheep, horses, camels and emus in the pastures. Enrol in one of their cheese-making classes for something a little more hands-on and with long-lasting benefits.
Not such a fan of dairy? Try something you won’t believe is actually made from cow’s milk at their on-site distillery, St Duke’s. It’s the first distillery of its kind in WA, making gin and other spirits from whey, the byproduct of all their cheese-making.Save your visit for the Gascoyne Food Festival (September) for more creative applications, where the humble banana shows up on plenty of the ticketed event menus in both sweet and savoury dishes.
Swan Valley
What to try: honey
Season: year-round
Commercially made, store-bought honey doesn’t hold a candle to local honey extracted fresh from the hive in the Swan Valley. It’s pure and flavoursome, and much of it has proven health benefits.
Both Windarra Honey and The House of Honey have kept bees in the valley for more than 30 years. Visit Windarra to try their certified range of active honey, which has been proven to have high antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral properties. To get a closer look at the processes involved in beekeeping and honey making, head to The House of Honey and take a bee farm or private ‘shadow a beekeeper’ tour. Finish up the day by relaxing under the wisterias with a glass of fermented honey mead and sticky honey-filled cake.
What to try:
macadamias
Season: March to November
Some native Australian produce is more accessible than others, like the rich, buttery macadamia nut, for example. Big bags sit alongside the peanuts and walnuts in the grocery store, and any good confectioner will have some chocolate-enhanced options in their repertoire. They’re even available straight from the farm gate right here in WA.
Though the trees are endemic to southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales, they grow exceptionally well in the Swan Valley. Head to Baudin’s Macadamias, and they’ll take you on a tour of their orchard to prove it, just make sure you pre-book to avoid disappointment. Before leaving, pop a $5 note in the honour box and grab a half-kilo bag of nuts in the shell.
While you’re in the Swan Valley, you can find chocolate-coated macadamias at Whistlers. Or for caramel, wasabi, or truffle-glazed varieties, visit Morish Nuts.
Broome to Kununurra
What to try: mangoes
Season: September to April
As soon as you reach Gingin, 78km north of Perth, you’ve already hit WA’s mango-producing region. But it’s the sticky, humid towns in the far north of the state that are synonymous with the sweet, tropical fruit.
Right the way from Broome to Kununurra, mango is the star. It’s on food and drink menus everywhere, and fruit-laden trees line the streets. They thrive in the tropical climate, producing more mangoes than the locals can possibly eat. But be warned: picking them off trees on private properties is illegal. If you happen to ask about picking one or two and are granted permission, be sure to take the proper precautions when grabbing them off the tree, as contact with the sap can leave you with nasty burns.
The easiest legal and pain-free way to sample the region’s mangoes is to head to the Broome Markets, where you buy them in freshly squeezed juices, chutneys, and homemade ice creams. And, if you’re 18+ and haven’t tried the local Matso’s Mango Beer before, there’s no better place than in its birthplace. Further north in Kununurra, pop into Ivanhoe Cafe and sit under the shade of the mango trees as you slurp on one of their legendary fruit smoothies.
Margaret River
What to try: olives
Season: year-round
Wine and olives are as classic a combo as bread and butter. Fans of the Mediterranean duo can indulge themselves in Margaret River, where small local producers pick, cure, and sell the perfect olive accompaniments for the region’s world-renowned Cabernet Sauvignons. As olives and olive-related products have a longer shelf life than fruits and fresh seafood, you can head down any time of the year and know the experience will remain the same.
Pop into Whirlwind Olives’ farm store in leafy Karridale to sample their cured olives and chutneys, then head over to the Olive Hill Farm. Make it your final stop of the day, and you can spend the night among the fruiting groves in your camper. Don’t have one? Stay the night in ‘Trevor’, their fully renovated 1960s glamping bus.
Olive Grove isn’t the only olive producer in the region to offer on-site stays. Just 20 minutes away, 16 luxury lakeside tents line Olio Bello’s lake, with views of the water and grove beyond.
Broome and the Dampier Peninsula
What to try: pearl meat
Season: year-round
If you thought a perfect, spherical pearl was the most sought-after part of an oyster, you’d be wrong. The Pinctada Maxima’s (or Silver Lip pearl oyster) scallop-sized adductor muscle is considered a rare delicacy that fetches upwards of $200/kg.
The Dampier Peninsula’s Bardi and Jawi people have been dining on pearl meat for centuries, but only in recent years has it found its way into the hands of local chefs and onto their menus. Tender and delicately flavoured, the meat is often served raw, gently seared, or cured in a ceviche style. Try it at Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm’s restaurant, but not before touring the facility and seeing how the pearls are harvested. The farm is the premier producer of pearl meat in WA and one of the most beautiful destinations in the region.
See how the Australian South Sea Pearls are sustainably produced from shell to showroom at Willie Creek Pearl Farm, where you can join a farm tour and check out the pearl nursery and see a live pearl harvest presentation.
If you’re in Broome around mid-August, you can also find pearl meat on the menu at the Shinju Matsuri festival’s long table and collaborative chef dinners. The annual food and culture festival coincides with the end of the pearling season and is a celebration of all things Pinctada Maxima.
Manjimup and Pemberton
What to try: truffles
Season: Early June to September
Shaving fresh truffle over your breakfast eggs is about as decadent as it gets. It’s also not that far out of the realm of reality if you’re spending winter in WA. June marks the beginning of the truffle season in the state, and you’ll find it topping fries, steak, and eggs on menus right the way from Perth to Albany. But, there’s only one place you can get a more in-depth understanding of the aromatic fungi: the Southern Forests and Valleys region.
Each year, the truffle farmers in Manjimup and Pemberton encourage visitors to join them and their hard-working truffle dogs beneath the oak and hazelnut trees as they nose around for the goods. Join a hunt with Australian Truffle Traders, Hound and Hunter, or Millgrove Truffles, then — if they have one — spend some time perusing the providore for take-home treats.
Time your hunt to coincide with Truffle Kerfuffle at Fonty’s Pool for the ultimate in gourmet weekends. Book tickets to one of the celebrity chef-led long-table events for three courses of aromatic indulgence. Or wander the festival grounds where you can dine on anything from marron with Australian native herbs to a cheese fondue bread bowl or pillowy marshmallows, all with lashings of the star ingredient.
Image credit: Willie Creek Pearls
