Best Stardew Valley Crops: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter

Stardew Valley presents players with an overwhelming amount of choice in terms of what crops they can plant on their farms. There are dozens of different fruit and vegetable seeds you can buy, and each of them has its own unique requirements in terms of how much they cost and how long they take to actually produce food.

The fact is that you can actually run your farm however you like and plant whichever crops you want, but there are clearly some seeds that are more suited to generating money than others. The game doesn’t lay any of this information out in front of you and there are no clear instructions given as to which crops will be the most profitable investment in a given season.

There are plenty of valuable season crops in the game. As you are going to start farming, we would like to give you advice that will be helpful in all seasons.

1. Secure your farm with the help of scarecrows, or crows will ruin your crop.
2. Invest in fertilizer.

Best Spring Crops In Stardew Valley

There are three crop seasons in Stardew, i.e., spring, Fall, and summer. Winter is not an outdoor crop season but offers some indoor seeds and alternatives. When you start your game, you begin with spring which is pretty logical. In your house, you find a box with 15 parsnip seeds packed in it that is, by the way, the worst crop in Stardew. Now, you have two good options:

Let’s begin with the first season, Spring Crops. 

Green Beans

• Seed Cost: 60g.
• Growth Time: 10 Days.

Green Beans are the perfect investment during the beginning of the game, purely because of how much yield you actually get out of a single crop. After the initial 60g investment, each grown Green Bean can be sold for a base price of 40g.

This might not seem like a lot at first glance, but these plants produce more than a single yield. A Green Bean crop will sprout more vegetables every three days after the initial harvest, and it will continue to do this throughout the Spring season.

So if you plant a bunch of these crops in your farm on the first day of the season, you can guarantee yourself seven full harvests per Green Bean plant.

Strawberries

• Seed Cost: 100g.
• Growth Time: 8 Days.

Strawberry Seeds can only be purchased during the Egg Festival on the 13th of every Spring, but they are an incredible investment regardless.

Strawberry crops take eight days to fully grow, but after that, they produce fruit every four days. Each of these can then be sold for 120g each. These are hands down the best crops to plant in Spring if you can get your hands on them.

To maximize your profits with this plant, consider purchasing as many Strawberry Seeds as you can during the first year, then only plant them during the beginning of Spring of the next year. This way you don’t lose out on half a season’s worth of profit.

Cauliflower

Cauliflower is one of the Stardew Valley best crops. One can buy cauliflower seeds from the general store anytime for just 80g. You can then harvest grownup cauliflower after 12 days, sell for 175g and make a 95g profit on your sale.

You can make a Cheese Cauliflower recipe; Palm will love it if you gift Cheese Cauliflower. Moreover, if you plan to flirt with Maru, Cauliflower will help you win her heart.

Additionally, in Stardew giant crops give more return, and also, they do not die with the season change. Luckily, Cauliflower grew into giant crops and said that it is the most profitable crop of spring.

Rhubarb

Here comes our most profitable crop of spring. You can buy Rhubarb from the Oasis shop for 100g, and after 13 days, you can get 120g profit after selling it at 220g. It would take some hard work in the early game as you need to gain access to the desert to reach the Merchant to buy a Rhubarb seed. This work will prove worthy for its high profitability. If you are a little business-minded, you can prepare a Rhubarb Pie recipe and sell it for 400g. Moreover, Rhubarb pie can help you come close to Marnie as it’s her favorite recipe.

Potato

Who does not like potatoes? It’s a staple crop, and players can farm it with little investment in the early game. 50g is all you need to get potato seed from the general store, and your harvest will be ready in six days. It’s suitable for the long term. It sells in 80g giving 30g as profit, and sometimes, if you are lucky, you get extra potatoes when you go for harvest. One can also make Hashbrowns with it. Also, it is part of the spring crop bundle.

Parsnips

Parsnip is a good crop to start as a newbie in Stardew. You can buy it for 20g and sell it after just four days for 35g making 15g as profit. You will be able to collect a good amount of gold by the end of the spring season if you work hard.

Moreover, parsnip can make Parsnip Soup and farmer’s Lunch Recipes. It’s a pet gift of Pam also. Additionally, Parsnip is part of the Quality Crop Bundle and the Spring Crop Bundle.

Stardew Valley Best Summer Crops

For high profits, Summer is the king when it comes to the question of Stardew Valley best crops. After successfully passing Spring Season, you will enter in lush greens of Summer Season in Stardew. Hopefully, you will be now fully aware of all the basics of this game, particularly the farming thing. If you have made good decisions in Spring Season, you would have a lot of gold to start the Summer Season with more confidence. As your Spring Crops would be dead by now, we will guide you about Stardew Valley best summer crops to prepare for the Summer Season to help you rake a lot of gold this summer too.

This guide will help you get a comprehensive understanding of Community crops and the Favorite Crops of Villagers. Most of the below-mentioned crop seeds would be available at Pierre’s shops, and the rest can be bought at the Traveling Merchant or other familiar places in the game. 

Blueberries

The best thing about blueberries is that it’s a multiple harvest crop, and you do not have to grow it again and again. That means once you buy it from Pierre’s shop and it matures in 13 days, you will get three blueberries at a minimum. 

• Seed Cost: 80g.
• Growth Time: 13 Days.

These are a great source of income in the Summer due to the high amount of output per crop. The availability and other features make the blueberry Best Crop compared to coffee and Starfruit for the summer season.

Each Blueberry seed costs 80g to start with, but then each plant yields a minimum of three blueberries per harvest. Each of these can then be sold for a base price of 50g, bringing the total up to 150g.

Once fully grown, this plant also produces three more fruit every four days, ensuring that you have a steady supply throughout the Summer season.

Blueberry is part of the Summer Crop Bundle, and it can be used in other Crop Bundles. If you have the right tools available at this point, you can make Blueberry jelly or Blueberry Wine. These products can sell for more gold and give better profit. Haley loves fruit salad; you can use your blueberry yield to make that and gift it to Haley. Linus prefers Blueberry Tart, so the choice is yours as you have a wide range of possibilities there.

Starfruit

• Seed Cost: 400g.
• Growth Time: 13 Days.

Getting your hands on some Starfruit Seeds should be the goal of all Stardew Valley players. These can only be bought from the Oasis for an astounding 400g per seed, but they will essentially end-all of your money troubles in the game.

That’s not all; you can use your business wit to make sky-high profits. Artisan products like starfruit jelly and starfruit wine can be made from it. Starfruit Jelly sells for 1550g. Starfruit Wine is the most profitable; you can sell it for 2250g or 6300g.

One has to complete Vault Community Center to unlock starfruit seeds from Oasis. This point makes this crop a little off for beginners. However, unlocking Starfruit is essential as it is used to build Junimo Hut, which you need to develop sooner or later in this game.

A Starfruit plant takes 13 days to grow, after which it only yields one fruit that can be sold for 750g. This doesn’t seem like a good turnout at first glance, but the magic of this crop is that it can then be converted into one of the most valuable artisan items in the game.

Like all fruits in Stardew Valley, you can put Starfruit into Kegs and turn them into wine over the course of a week and increase their value by 300%. So if you’re willing to wait seven extra days after harvest, you can get a 2250g return on a 400g investment.

Coffee

Who does not like coffee? Man, coffee is life. In Stardew Valley, coffee is the most profitable crop. There are only two ways to buy coffee seeds. You can buy it from Travelling Merchant if you are lucky to find him. The price for seeds is 1500g, which is very high for beginners. There is another way to get coffee seeds. You can get them by killing dust spirits found in certain places in-game.

Once you get coffee seeds, you can plant them. They will be ready for harvest in 10 days. After the first Coffee growth, it gives four beans of coffee every two days. You can use these beans for farming more coffee.

Melon

Melons are our favorite fruit for the Summer Season in real life and are also one of the Stardew Valley best crops. You can buy it from the general store for a small amount of 80g. The Melon crop will take 12 days to mature and give its first Melon Harvest. Melons are among the three crops in Stardew Valley to grow the big crop. It sells for 250g giving a handsome profit of 170g on each harvest.

Melons can also be used for other fruitful purposes. It is used to make a pink cake loved by Vincent, Jas, Marnie, and Haley. You can also prepare a Fruit Salad dish that Haley loves the most.

Red Cabbage

You can buy red cabbage seeds from the general store for 100g, but the problem is that they do not sell them in the first year of the game. To get these seeds during the first year in the game, one has to be lucky enough to find Travelling Merchant. Once you find the seeds, it will take nine days to harvest. It sells for 260g giving a handsome profit of 160g on each harvest.

As Red Cabbage is a pet vegetable crop, it is used in different dishes and fulfills many purposes. For example, Emily loves Red Plate made of Red Cabbage, while Fish tac and Coleslaw also require Red Cabbage as raw material. These two dishes are most favorite of Caroline and Gus.

Corn

• Seed Cost: 150g.
• Growth Time: 14 Days.

The long-term benefits of planting Corn might not be apparent at first glance due to the vegetable’s long growth period and relatively mediocre selling price of 50g per unit.

But Corn is one of the few crops in the game that can grow in more than one season. So if you plant some during the Summer, you can expect it to keep producing until the end of Fall.

For the maximum amount of profit, plant a bunch of seeds at the start of the Summer season. These will take fourteen days to fully grow, after which they will sprout new Corn every four days, for a total of eleven harvests all through the Fall.

Best Fall Crops In Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley fun coaster gives you a trip around three seasons; Spring, Summer, and Fall season. At this point in the game, you would be fully aware of all the minute details of the game. You would have many saved, relations made, and ranking achieved in the last two seasons. We will guide you for Stardew Valley’s best fall Season Crops, and our goal is to make you profitable this season. While compiling a guide for you, we mind profit, community crop bundles, and favorite gifts for Stardew Valley characters. Let’s start!

Sweet Gem Berry

It’s on top of our list because it is the most profitable. It can be sold for a high price, like 3000g. One has to plan for sweet gem berry farming during summer or spring as seeds are available during these two seasons. You can buy these rare seeds from the Travelling cart. One has to reach early as the Merchant possesses limited stock. Seed price is 1000g and this way you can make a profit of 2000g on each sale.

It takes 24 days for sweet gem berry seeds to grow. They are not used in dishes, nor are they part of community crops or season crop bundles.

Grapes

• Seed Cost: 60g.
• Growth Time: 10 Days.

Grapes are a fantastic source of money in the Fall due to their low cost and fast rate of regrowth. After the initial 60g investment, a Grapevine only takes ten days to fully grow and produce fruit. Then after the first harvest, new grapes are available after every three days.

Gamers benefit from grapes in the summer through forging. During Fall Season, grapes are a regular crop to grow. Grapes seeds can be bought at 60g, and they can be sold at 80g price.

Grapes can be used to make Grapevine. A grapevine rack requires ten days to grow, and it can be harvested again and again every four days throughout the season. Grapes grow on shelves, and they narrow down the path for movement. Leaving empty tiles between grape farms to make room to walk around would be a good approach. Moreover, grapes can be gifted to Vincent as it’s his favorite. Investing in grapes would prove much profitable by the end of the season.

So save up money over Spring and Summer, then invest it all in Grape Seeds in the Fall. Plant them all on the first day of the season, then watch as you squeeze seven harvests out of each plant.

Cranberries

• Seed Cost: 240g.
• Growth Time: 7 Days.

Cranberry plants are another great Fall crop that makes a lot of profit, even if the initial investment is a bit high. Each Cranberry Seed costs an incredible 240g, but that cost is offset due to the short growth time and multiple fruits generated by each plant.

After the first seven days, each plant yields a minimum of two fruits every five days. Each of these can be sold for 75g. Additionally, each plant has a 10% chance that it will produce one or more extra Cranberries when harvested.

If you are not into farming and still want to profit, cranberries are your thing. Like pumpkin, cranberries do not require re-seeding. Once you sow cranberry seeds, they will continue to fruit the whole season. You can buy cranberry seed for 240g, and in just seven days, it will be mature.

You can get two or more cranberries from every plant, and each cranberry will sell for 75g, which is a handsome profit for easy farming. It gives five harvests in one entire Fall Season. It has other incredible uses as well. It’s used in the preparation of four different dishes in-game. These dishes can greatly benefit socializing, experience points, and community service.

Pumpkin

Pumpkin is one of the crops that need to be re-seeded every time. Its seed costs just 100g, but it’s still costly because one has to buy it after harvest for sowing again. One pumpkin sells for 440g, and there is a 10% probability of getting a giant pumpkin and making more profit. This is why Pumpkin is one of the Stardew Valley best crops.
Not only will it make a profit, but it is helpful in other ways too. It is included in Fall Crop Bundle and quality crops bundle. Pumpkins are favorites to Willey, Krobus, and Abigail.

Best Winter Crops Alternatives In Stardew Valley

The Winter season is the fourth one in Stardew Valley. It is not an outdoor crop season. Winter proceeds by the Fall and is followed by the Spring season. All the grass and weeds will be removed by this season except Winter Weeds. If we apply Tree Fertilizers, all the standard trees will grow in winter. The worst feeling is when honey bees stop making honey in Winter. But gamers do not have to worry because we will tell some alternatives here. You can follow our advice and make a lot of gold in winter.

Animals and greenhouses are the primary sources of farming activity in the Winters. We can see this as an opportunity as in the Winters; we can do many other beneficial activities. One has plenty of time to spend in Foraging, Mining, and fishing.

Foraging

Stardew Valley offers a similar fun activity for farming that is foraging. You can move around the map and explore valuable seeds, roots, crystals, and flowers and sell them for a good amount of gold. These useful items can be used in bundles and recipes.

Winter Root

It is a starchy tuber found through the Stardew Valley by Tilling Soil. Depending on the quality, it can be sold between 70g to 140g. It is also used in the Winter Foraging Bundle, Winter Seeds, and Roots Platter. 

Crystal Fruit

It is a soft fruit that pops up from the snow. It can be found at six different places in Stardew Valley during The Winter Season. There is a 50% chance of finding it at Railroads, a 39% chance of getting it from Cindersap Forest, 38% chance for Mountain, and 23% and 22% chances to find it in Backwoods and Bus Stop, respectively.

The selling price for crystal fruit varies between 150g to 300g, depending on the quality. Besides its use in Winter Foraging Bundle and Winter seed, it is also used to prepare Jelly and Wine.

Snow Yam

This little Yam hides beneath the snow and can forage by tilling the soil throughout the Stardew Valley in Winters. It sells for 100g to 200g, and rates depend on quality. Snow Yam is part of the Winter Foraging Bundle and Winter seeds.

Crocus

It is a valuable flower that blooms in the Winter season and can be found in the Pelican town with 54% probability, Railroad with 50% chances, Bus stop with 42% chance, and Cindersap forest. We can sell them for 60g to 120g depending on the quality. It is also part of the Winter Foraging Bundle and Winter Seeds. Additionally, you can gift it to Sandy as she loves it.

Holly

It is a bright red berry with green leaves used in decoration. It sells for 80g to 160g. You can always find it at Secret Woods with 100% probability. Other popular Foraging places have 30-40% chances also.

Mining and Fishing are profitable activities in the game also. You can attend some festivals in the Winter season. Some game characters will be celebrating their birthdays these days.

Festivals

Several festivals take place in Stardew Valley during The Winter Season. One can attend them to enjoy the replica of snow festivals in our world. 

Festival of Ice

This festival takes place on the 8th day of the winter season every season. One can attend this festival by reaching Cindersap Forest between 2 AM – 9 PM. You can attend an ice fishing festival along with Willy, Pam, and Elliot there. Players can win 2000g by winning this competition. One has to catch at least five fish, and the Winners will also be rewarded with a Barbed Hook, a Dressed Spinner, Sailor’s Cap, and a Magnet. The Festival automatically ends with the judgment of the Ice Fishing Contest by Mayor Lewis. Players will return by 10 Pm at their farms.

Night Market

This festival is celebrated between the 15th and 17th day of the Winter Season. You will see a lot of Merchants and boats appearing at The beach. You can buy Goods from their stalls and take rides in their boats. The Night Market will stay open between 5 PM and 2 AM, but the submarine ride will be available before 11 PM, and the Mermaid ride will be closed by 12:30 PM. During Night Market Festival, shops and homes will stay open, and the animals need to feed as time passes. This is contrary to other festivals.

Feast of the Winter

On the 25th of every winter, they celebrate the Feast of The Winter Star. To attend the event, one has to enter The Pelican Town between 9 am to 2 pm. A villager is assigned to give us a gift, and the mayor invites us to the festival one week before the 18th of the Winter Season. Once the players leave Pelican Town, they enter their farm at 10 pm.

Birthdays

Why do we all earn money? The answer is simple; to be able to celebrate life. In Stardew Valley, we can wish Birthdays to our favorite characters and present gifts. Following are the Birth dates of some of our characters whose birthdays come in the Winter Season:

• 01 Krobus
• 03 Linus
• 07 Caroline
• 10 Sebastian
• 14 Harvey
• 17 Wizard
• 20 Evelyn
• 23 Leah
• 26 Clint

Following the instructions mentioned above in our guide, one can easily make money through Foraging. Players can develop new relationships during festivals and birthdays with their favorite characters.

Conclusions

All of the crops mentioned above are beneficial one way or the other, and gamers have to decide best suited for them based on the following conditions:

1. Amount of gold you have to buy seed.
2. Availability of seeds.
3. In which year in the Stardew Valley are you?
4. Based on need, prioritize; either you need more return in the short term or gift a particular dish to a specific character in the game.

After all, the purpose of this game is to have fun and spend quality time. We hope this guide will help you with all the possible farming and crop selection challenges in all seasons.