How do I stockpile food for winter when it decays so fast?

[Kazi]

Played my first clan last night and made it to winter before the elements completely destroyed my entire clan. Reflecting back on what I did wrong and what I can do differently next game has me thinking about some of the challenges I had.

Seems like food was decaying super fast. Catching eels in the morning, cooking them, and seeming like they spoiled by the end of the day. Noticed the clan doesn't eat during working hours, and each day ran themselves into the ground needs wise. Berry crops seemed to be a waste of time in the first year because they don't mature before winter (except grass). Mushrooms were by far the best food source when found.

How are others stockpiling for winter with the fast decay? I seem to blaze through the tech tree until I get to smelting, and then get hung up because it takes long to acquire ore (mining or trading). Once snow was on the ground, it was basically a death spiral. Also I did build individual buildings not realizing that hurt more than it would help.

[Mkoll The Reaper]

Me as well just hit my second death spiral but had almost 7-8 eel traps and finally got farming down but nothing came of that (died before harvestable I think?). Had a metric ton of berries/mushrooms and eels but yeah that decay makes it...annoying? I guess keep trying? I mean theoretically could try a mountain refrigerator... It does say they are colder on the inside but I don't know might wait longer for this game to develop before I come back to it!

[Philtre]

In the early game, there is no point in having more that about 2 days worth of food on hand, because it will spoil before you can eat it. There are two approaches to preserving food.

First is tech advancement: If you can get iron bars, you can make a meat smoker, which will cause meat (and later fish) to last much longer. If you can get to iron nails, you can build a mushroom drying rack; dried mushrooms last forever if kept dry. If you can build a kitchen (also requires nails), you unlock the quern / dough bench / bread oven, which lets you eat oats. Oats last forever in their raw state, making them an excellent food to stockpile.

Second is lateral thinking: If you dig into a mountain and put in a door to make a small cave, it will be colder than the outside world. So even in summer you can keep your food in a cave to preserve it a bit. However, towards the end of fall it will get below freezing in a cave at night, so if you put a whole bunch of jugs of water in your cave, they will freeze, and the ice will keep the cave below freezing until winter time, letting you stock up on mushrooms and eels while they're still available.

Also note that you can buy food from traders, and they stop by pretty frequently even in winter if you maintain good relations.

[Kazi]

Originally posted by Philtre:

First is tech advancement: If you can get iron bars, you can make a meat smoker, which will cause meat (and later fish) to last much longer. If you can get to iron nails, you can build a mushroom drying rack; dried mushrooms last forever if kept dry. If you can build a kitchen (also requires nails), you unlock the quern / dough bench / bread oven, which lets you eat oats. Oats last forever in their raw state, making them an excellent food to stockpile.

Ahhhh okay that makes a lot of sense. Reading that makes me aware that I might have spent too much time on the wrong things. I had a lot of luck with trading and selling my surplus and buying ore, but by that point in my game it was fall/winter and I built the smelter outside so it didnt work when it got too cold or rained. Welp.. round 2 here I come.

[Bobisz]

Definitely need more "medieval" food storage solutions besides smoking, like salting or dug cellars.
I've tried to do a walk-in freezer type pantry alá Rimworld (closed room with an open vent to the outside), so it's freezing inside in the winter, but it seems that temperature does not affect food at all.

Food priority (as in what condition food is consumed first regardless of food value) needs a lot of fine-tuning as well.

[Thulen]

Rush for dried mushroom before winter hit i had 50+ days of food and im only using 1 person (challenge myself) - they last a REALLY long time , if you want to build walls fast get reeds for hay walls since they are instantly usable - no threshing needed.

[Great Sage Equal of Heaven]

Nice, I'm playing a solo run as well

[Blutwurst]

its pretty ez if u find early iron. build a kitchen, harvest all wild oat u can find (there are naturally a lot of it) and cook porrige every day. oat dont decay...

[Arcaron]

Originally posted by Bobisz:

Definitely need more "medieval" food storage solutions besides smoking, like salting or dug cellars.
I've tried to do a walk-in freezer type pantry alá Rimworld (closed room with an open vent to the outside), so it's freezing inside in the winter, but it seems that temperature does not affect food at all.

Food priority (as in what condition food is consumed first regardless of food value) needs a lot of fine-tuning as well.

I have a big "refrigerator" and the food in there doesn't spoil at all. Did you put in frozen water juggs? Like several palletts?
Here is my layout:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2837295808

[forestfey]

...how many is several pallets? I can't really see that on the screenshot... 5x5 with 3 pantry shelves and the rest pallets (grain, too?) is all I can see:
So my question, if it is possible to build an artificial refrigerator is answered then! :D

[TechRabbit]

Originally posted by forestfey:

...how many is several pallets? I can't really see that on the screenshot... 5x5 with 3 pantry shelves and the rest pallets (grain, too?) is all I can see:
So my question, if it is possible to build an artificial refrigerator is answered then! :D

The math is 1 full frozen jug(100 units) per 1.5 tiles (not including mountain roof) at 80f/26.6c

[Sorgal]

At this point of developpement, there is no mallus by having no variety for food ( health, mood ...) so at first go dried mushroom. Easy to find in Automn ( every where ) and to make.
After u will have real fridge using ice water.

[Rane]

Originally posted by forestfey:

...how many is several pallets? I can't really see that on the screenshot... 5x5 with 3 pantry shelves and the rest pallets (grain, too?) is all I can see:
So my question, if it is possible to build an artificial refrigerator is answered then! :D

I did some experimentation in one game with various sized mountain-roofed enclosed spaces (10 spaces, 12, 14, 16), and found that :
In order to stay frozen at 90+ degree Fahrenheit mid-summer temps, one jug pallet with 6 ice jugs will keep 7 tiles frozen, including the tile taken up by the pallet. Due to the sizing of the Pantry Shelves storage item, it seems most logical to make a pantry that is 3 tiles wide, have a 'walkway' down the middle, and count it in increments of 2. So one ice pallet will keep frozen a 2x3 + 1 space.

By the end of the first winter, I'm doing good to have 2 ice pallets. Sometimes not quite that.

[dissent]

You don't need a cold room or even a smoker to preserve food for winter. Just find any space in the mountain where you can put a pantry. On the last day of fall, temps in the mountain will fall below zero and will stay there for the whole of winter. Start the game with meat-rich animals like cows or boars, or buy them from traders who visit before winter. You don't even need to build a barn for them, just let them graze and sleep in the wild.

On the last day of fall, have a mass slaughter. If you slaughter, say, a cow and two boars, that will give you 220 meat. Store it in the pantry straight away and it will stay fresh throughout winter. That amount of meat, when cooked rather than smoked, will easily sustain a clan of five adults and two juveniles through winter. The further bonus is that you can use the hides to make fur clothing.

The entire mountain is a cold room in winter. The only reason you need an actual cold room is to preserve food in the warmer months. But you're not worried about the warmer months when you're surviving your first winter. So the mountain will do just fine.

[dissent]

Originally posted by Rane:

Due to the sizing of the Pantry Shelves storage item, it seems most logical to make a pantry that is 3 tiles wide, have a 'walkway' down the middle, and count it in increments of 2. So one ice pallet will keep frozen a 2x3 + 1 space.

Like this:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2851231951

[PhotriusPyrelus]

I don't really understand the need for refrigerators. First Summer/Autumn you can subsist on eels and berries, Last day of Autumn, harvest ALL the mushrooms and dry them. Second year, fish, and berries in Summer/Autumn, dried mushrooms and oat bread in winter.

Sprinkle in meat from any adult rabbits nearby, and from the chickens you don't need (excess roosters, senior hens) or can't house. Eggs from your chickens make a nice stop-gap, too. I've never actually seen them get eaten, but they must get eaten because I've never seen them rotten.