Getting started farming?

[Ele]

I think I may be missing something here--I've just started, I'm in summer of year 1 and it seems like I should be starting to farm. I made a hoe and bought seeds, but found I can't plant them until I fertilize. I bought manure...couldn't do anything with it. Finally found some fertilizer, but then it looks like I need a bag to spread it and the bag costs over 200 gold. So, seeds + fertilizer + bag, that's pretty expensive to try to buy on day 4-5 of the game. It looks like I will eventually be able to craft some of this in a barn, but I can't get a barn until I get farming experience. Any tips for getting farming started more quickly?

[Wizard of Woz]

You don't need a barn to craft a bag.

[TheOriginalMark:-)]

Your best bet at the start is to gather stones and sticks and craft stone knives to sell - lots of stone knives. Also make a stone axe and fell a tree or two then you can make spears and hunt some deer which gives meat and leather and from the leather you can make a bag, no buildings required for these things. Also, as you wander the valley, you will find abandon carts (and, if you are lucky, camps) where you can pick up some useful items.

[pdoan8]

There are many abandoned camps around the map. You should be able to pick up a bag, and other valuable equipment.

Bag can be crafted using the crafting wheel (press "Q"). However, you will need linen thread.

You will need a barn to craft fertilizer.

IMHO, you should not start farming too soon. You will need a barn to make grain, then flour. You will need a kitchen to make bread (from flour).

If you need high value food, cheese would be easier (but not cheap). Buy a bucket of sour milk, and a bucket of milk (Gostavia). If you build a house, you can use the kettle in the house to make quark from sour milk, then make cheese from quark and milk. One bucket of each type of milk will yield 10 cheese. Along with roasted meat, you should be fine for a 10 days season. Craft and sell stone/wooden tools should get you enough money for verything.

[BanDHMO]

First and most important, you definitely don't HAVE to farm early. In my current playthrough I'm on year 2 and just starting to make a little garden, and that's mostly for fun. There are simpler ways to get food or coin early on, so don't feel like you need to rush to make a farm.

That said, everything besides Fertilizer and Seeds you need for vegetable farming is very easy to get for free.

Sticks + Stones -> Stone Axe -> Log -> Spear -> Hunt Deer -> Leather -> Small Bag

Seeds you get back after harvesting, so the only thing you need to buy is Fertilizer @7.5 coins per tile. Each tile of veggies will produce about 8 veggies, each of which sells for 1.5. So you can get a modest profit from this kind of farming, or feed your village.

But early on your population will be small enough that you can just feed them berries (which give food AND water), and/or roast meat from your hunts for them.

For serious farming profits you will need a Barn, a Pigsty and some pigs. The Barn opens up grain farming, and allows making Animal Feed, which the pigs turn into Manure, which you turn into Fertilizer in the Barn. This takes a bit of initial resources to start and works best when you have a few people to automate everything with.

[ArmyVetWife]

also a simple bag will do, just need 3 leather to make one and don't need a sewing hut
+

[ArmyVetWife]

plus as said before, check out the camps laying around, a lot of them have fruit trees that don't need fertilizer but do count towards farming.

[sindar58]

Hi Gamer, Farming will come after day 1. After you build your house and want to farm, I suggest cabbage .. not only will you up your farming skill, but it's good food. Carefully look at you landscape to plan your farm .. where you want to eventually build you barn. Happy gaming :))

[Ele]

Thanks for the responses--I had overlooked the small bag crafting option--that should help. I am in fall now, and have found some abandoned campsites but no farming supplies--I suppose the loot is pretty random. Fortunately though I found a bow and some arrows, so should have no problem getting through the first winter by hunting. (Hunting with the spear was kind of a pain.) And I found a bunch of booze to sell, so it seems like I have enough money to start farming in the spring.

[sindar58]

Hi again, If I may suggest .. you need to buy "winter" clothing. You can actually use your tourch to keep warm, as long as you don't use a 2 handed tool. Chopping trees is singlehanded .. good luck :))

[BanDHMO]

If you put roasted meat into your house storage chest it will deteriorate at a slower rate of 25% per season, so you can easily stockpile enough from fall huntings to not worry about food over winter. Also, get yourself 10 sticks and build a rabbit trap not far from your house. It will give you a little extra meat periodically.

You biggest problem in the winter will be freezing, since you haven't had a chance to buy warm clothing yet.

There is a skill that makes you more cold tolerant that might be worth investing into.

EDIT: One more thing, after winter is over, build a hunting hut building since you are haivng trouble spear hunting. You will be able to make bows and arrows there. You will just need to buy a Linen Thread (available from a tailor merchant in the city to the west of Gostovia) @75, and all other ingredients are easy to get yourself.

[jcmeerman]

You can also build the smithy. Here you can also make bows.

[Ele]

Good to know about the meat storage trick--I've got a huge amount (trying to do the boar/fox quest but keep finding deer instead). Day 2 of winter, and I found a fur hood, bought fur gloves so not freezing to death. I found 3 plum sapling seeds and got them planted. I also found some beetroot seeds. I will buy cabbage and maybe some flax seeds, depending on how much fertilizer I can afford. I've got the hunting hut so now can make stone arrows. Thinking of starting a storage shed next--tho maybe it would be better to conserve resources to build the barn when it is available.

[BanDHMO]

You may have already figured out that in the hunting hut you can also smoke meat, which makes it last even longer. Smoked meat also sells for a lot more coin, though it takes a while to do.

I believe you will need a Barn if you want to grow Flax. It works like grain so you need to thresh it after harvesting or you don't get seeds back.

EDIT: Also, "conserve resources", I think you are underestimating your ability to get more resources. You won't need a Barn until AFTER the next harvest, and even then you can delay for a while and just leave the harvest unthrashed for some time. That's many, many days you have to chop down a bunch of trees, collect a bunch of sticks and reeds and stick them together in the shape of a building. That takes a day, maybe a couple if you are taking it very leisurely. You definitely don't need to worry about conserving resources and choosing Barn vs Storage. Build both.

[EnochPrime]

Can you build a field before your first house? To orient it correctly. This is already bugging me in my first autumn, and I'm contemplating another restart

[pdoan8]

You can temporary build your first house somewhere before planning for your permanent village location and layout.