There's a pale, bulbous vegetable topped with a cloud of feathery green fronds sitting at the stall, and if you've walked past it wondering what on earth to do with it, this one's for you. That's fennel, and here's the headline: raw it's crunchy and brightly aniseed, but learn how to cook fennel and that liquorice edge softens right down into something mellow, golden and quietly sweet. Same bulb, two very different personalities.
What it actually is
Fennel belongs to the carrot and parsley family (Apiaceae), and the one you want for cooking is Florence or bulb fennel, Foeniculum vulgare, Azoricum Group. Italians call it finocchio, and you'll also see it labelled bulb fennel, sweet fennel or anise fennel. Grown for its swollen base, it's the vegetable form of the plant.
Here's a small trick of the eye though. The pale "bulb" isn't really a bulb at all. It's a tight stack of overlapping leaf bases, topped by hollow stalks and those wispy fronds. Raw, the flesh is crisp and cool with a clear aniseed or liquorice note. Cook it and that note steps back, letting a natural sweetness come forward.
Worth clearing up: this is related to but distinct from fennel seed, the little dried spice you might have in the cupboard. Same species, different job. And if you've ever spotted tall, scrappy fennel growing along a roadside or railway line around Melbourne, that's the very same plant gone feral. Fennel has naturalised widely and is classed as an invasive weed in parts of southeastern and Western Australia, so it's genuinely at home in this country, for better and worse.
How to choose a good one
Go for a bulb that's firm, heavy for its size and white to pale green, with no browning, splits or soft spots. The stalks should snap-crisp rather than bend, and the fronds should be bright green and feathery, not tired and wilting. Those fronds are your best freshness tell, so don't ignore them. A good bulb will smell faintly of aniseed when you bring it close.
One quiet tip: buy it whole, with the stalks and fronds still attached. It's better value than a pre-trimmed bulb, and the greenery tells you far more about how fresh it really is. As always, ask whoever's behind the stall what came in this week and how it's been growing. Growers know which bulbs are at their best, and they're usually happy to point you to a beauty.
How to store it
Keep fennel in the crisper, unwashed and dry, loosely wrapped and ideally in a perforated bag so it can breathe. A whole bulb will happily sit there for roughly a week to ten days. Snipping the stalks off the bulb helps it last, since the stalks keep drawing moisture up out of the base. The fronds are the first thing to wilt, so treat them as the use-me-first part. If you can't get to them, they freeze reasonably well for cooking later.
How to cook fennel
A quick prep note. Trim the base, pull off any bruised outer layer, and stand the bulb up to cut it into wedges through the root so the pieces hold together. If a recipe wants it shaved, a mandoline gets you those lovely see-through slices, but a sharp knife and a steady hand do the trick too.
The dead-simple everyday method is roasting. Cut the bulb into wedges, toss with oil and salt, and roast hot, around 200°C, until the edges catch and caramelise and a knife slides in with no resistance. Reckon on 25 to 35 minutes. That's it. The liquorice mellows, the sugars come up, and you've got a side that goes with almost anything.
The one worth lingering over is braised fennel. Sit the wedges cut side down in a pan with a splash of stock or water, a little oil and a few sprigs of thyme. Cover and simmer gently until tender, then take the lid off and let the liquid cook away so the cut faces turn deep and golden in the pan. It's soft, savoury and a bit special, and it holds its own next to roast pork or a piece of fish.
A couple more ideas for when you've got the hang of it:
- Slice it thin and cook it slowly in oil or butter until soft, sweet and golden. That caramelised fennel is a brilliant base for pasta, risotto, or a plate of fish.
- Lay the stalks and fronds under a whole roast fish or chicken as an aromatic bed, or throw wedges onto a tray of roasting vegetables.
And don't waste the greenery. Treat the feathery fronds like dill: scatter them raw over fish, soups, roast veg or a salad right at the end. The tougher stalks aren't for eating as-is, but they're excellent dropped into a stock or a braise for flavour. This is genuinely a whole-plant vegetable, bulb, stalks and fronds all earning their keep.
Of course, you don't have to cook it at all. Shaved wafer-thin and dressed with lemon and good oil, raw fennel is crisp and refreshing, lovely with citrus, apple, or rocket and shaved parmesan.
Flavours it loves: lemon, orange, parmesan, thyme, pork, white fish, apple and olive oil.
When it's in season in Victoria
Fennel is a cool-season crop here. Around Victoria and Melbourne (we're in the southern hemisphere, so this is our autumn-to-winter cool) you'll find it from autumn through winter and on into spring, with the best, firmest bulbs generally turning up through the colder months. If you'd like to see what else is worth grabbing at the same time, have a look at our guide to what's in season in Melbourne in winter. It sits nicely alongside other cool-weather stalwarts you'll spot on the same tables.
Better bought fresh and local
Fennel is one of those vegetables where freshness shows immediately. A bulb picked recently, with its fronds still perky, tastes cleaner and sweeter and lasts longer in your crisper than one that's been trimmed and sitting around. Buying it at a market means you can feel the bulb, smell it, and ask the grower how it's been coming along, which is half the pleasure. If you're new to it, our notes on how to shop a farmers market and why shop at farmers markets are a good place to start.
Yarraville Farmers Market is a monthly daytime market at Bassett Reserve, where Yarraville, Kingsville and West Footscray meet. We open on Sunday 27 September 2026, 8am to 1pm, then run on the fourth Sunday of every month. To hear what's landing on the stalls first, join the Market Matters mailing list. And if you grow or make something good, we'd love to hear from you: come and become a foundation stallholder. We'll save you a spot near the fennel.
More Market Finds
The Market Finds series digs into one great ingredient at a time. Here is the rest of the shelf:
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