There’s a narrow window in the Australian calendar — maybe three or four weeks — when late summer and early autumn overlap, and the produce is so good it almost feels reckless to let any of it go to waste. We’re right in that window now. Stone fruit is still around. Tomatoes are heavy on the vine. Figs are dropping. And if you’ve been meaning to start preserving, this is your moment.

I’m not talking about turning your kitchen into an industrial canning facility. I’m talking about spending a Saturday afternoon making things that will genuinely improve your cooking for the next six months. A few jars of passata. Some pickled chillies. A batch of fig jam that you’ll be grateful for when it’s July and everything at the shops looks grey and sad.

What’s Available Right Now

The beauty of preserving in late February and early March is the sheer variety of what’s in season. Here’s what I’ve been spotting at farmers’ markets and decent greengrocers across Melbourne, Sydney, and regional areas.

Tomatoes. Roma and San Marzano varieties are everywhere right now, and they’re cheap. This is the time to buy them by the box. If your local grower has seconds or slightly blemished fruit, even better — they’re perfect for cooking down.

Stone fruit. Peaches and nectarines are winding down but still findable. Yellow clingstone peaches make exceptional preserves. Plums are hitting their stride, especially blood plums and Angelina varieties.

Figs. Black Genoa and Brown Turkey figs are coming through strongly in Victoria and South Australia. They have a short window, so act quickly.

Chillies. Late summer is peak chilli season. Jalapenos, habaneros, bird’s eye, and long reds are all abundant. If you grow your own, your plants are probably producing more than you can eat fresh.

Cucumbers and zucchini. Both are prolific right now and both preserve beautifully as pickles and relishes.

Corn. Still available from local growers. Corn relish is one of the most underrated condiments you can make at home.

What to Actually Make

Let’s be practical. If you’re going to spend time in the kitchen, here are the highest-return projects.

Passata (Tomato Sauce Base)

This is the single most useful thing you can preserve. Buy 10 kilograms of ripe Romas. Wash them, core them, cut them in half. Roast them cut-side down at 200 degrees until the skins blister and the juices run. Pass through a food mill or mouli. Season with salt. Pour into sterilised bottles and process in a water bath for 35 minutes.

You’ll get roughly 5 to 6 litres from 10 kilos of tomatoes. That’s months of pasta sauces, braises, and soups sorted. The roasting step concentrates flavour in a way that raw-blended passata simply can’t match.

Pickled Chillies

Slice your chillies into rings. Pack into clean jars. Bring equal parts white vinegar and water to a boil with a tablespoon of salt and a tablespoon of sugar per cup of liquid. Pour over the chillies. Seal. That’s it.

These keep for months in the fridge and go on everything — tacos, noodles, pizza, sandwiches. I go through about a jar a fortnight.

Fig Jam

Figs make a jam that’s rich, complex, and works as well on cheese boards as it does on toast. Roughly chop your figs (no need to peel), combine with sugar at a ratio of about 2:1 fruit to sugar, add lemon juice, and cook down slowly. It sets easily because figs are naturally high in pectin.

Quick Cucumber Pickles

Slice small Lebanese cucumbers thinly. Toss with salt and let them sit for 30 minutes, then drain. Pack into jars with rice vinegar, a little sugar, garlic, dill seeds, and mustard seeds. These are ready in 24 hours and last a couple of weeks in the fridge.

Corn Relish

Strip the kernels from fresh cobs (you want about 6 to 8 ears). Combine with diced capsicum, onion, celery, mustard, turmeric, vinegar, and sugar. Simmer for 30 minutes. Jar it up. This is the condiment that makes sausage sandwiches feel like a proper meal.

A Few Notes on Process

Sterilise your jars properly. Dishwasher on the hottest cycle, or 120-degree oven for 20 minutes. Not optional for shelf-stable preserves.

Use a water bath for anything shelf-stable. If you’re not refrigerating, preserves need to be processed in boiling water. Follow the CSIRO guides. Botulism is rare but real and preventable.

Label everything. You will forget what’s in that jar by June.

Start small. One project this weekend, another next weekend. The produce will still be there.

The Bigger Picture

There’s something genuinely satisfying about opening a jar of your own passata in the middle of winter and tasting summer. It connects you to the seasons in a way that buying tinned tomatoes year-round simply doesn’t.

And it saves money. A box of Roma tomatoes from a market grower costs roughly $15 to $20 right now. That yields enough passata to replace $40 or $50 worth of decent jarred sauce from the supermarket. Multiply that across a few different preserves and you’re looking at real savings over the year.

The window is open. The produce is ready. Grab some jars and get started.