What is the best crops harvest.

[lastor78]

You have a lot of different crops. Some grow easy and fast, other slow and have a late harvest.
But what is the best crops.
If you have 1000 of every crops in the game. What crops is used up first and so on.......

I think 1000 of pumpkin is more of use than 1000 beans. Pumpkin can last a mounth longer than the beans..

What do you think.

[ROBINO]

i found cabbages quite hardy as they can be harvested quite late

squashes tent to die in early winter and harvest is affected if you are having a delay in harvesting

haven't tried many crops so can't comment on all of them

[lastor78]

Out of squash and cabbage, what is lasting longer when you harvest them. Do they/people need less squash than cabbages or the other way..

[bfree1118]

I haven't noticed any difference in consumption. If I have 6 fields of each one, I usually have an equal amount of both in the barn. I usually run my farm at 8x7, but with wheat I will use 8x8 because it grows and gets harvested fast. Usually on an easy game you get 2 types of seeds. The one at the top is the fastest growing one. The following was posted by another user, but as a general rule one farmer can handle the following: Farms 56 squares 8x7, Orchards 72 squares, Pasture 198 squares 11x18 which holds the following: 9 cows, 12 sheep, 33 chickens. If you maximize each farmers area, you will maximize production. What works best for me is to build a market and put 8 houses back to back on each of the 4 sides with barns on the corners, then surround the houses with farms with more barns on the outskirts of the farms for the gatherers and herbalists. You can also build more houses with the outside barns for the outer workers. Just make sure the houses are inside the ring of the market. What you are doing is cutting travel time and maximizing production. The vendors make the trip to the barns so the workers don't have to, they get everything they need in one stop.

[walia6]

beans. They are the fastest for me.

[Sandwiches!!!]

Beans and corns grow the fastest in my games.

[lastor78]

I know what is the fastest and so on. But i don`t now what is the best crops when it comes to how long it last after you have harvested it.
Beans dont last long when the people is eating but pumpkins do last longer..
So do anyone have something lasting longer than pumkins....?

[johntarmac]

All types are the same, all are 1 food unit including meats and stuff that is gathered.
What you are seeing is just your people eating more beans than pumpkins.

Why they do this I am not sure but in different games I have noticed they prefer different things over others. Sometimes they won't eat fish and I have barns full of the stuff, the next game they wolf them down as fast as they are caught.

[S-P]

I think there really isn't much difference, they all get consumed. But I think corn and beans get harvested the fastest which makes them the first choice early game, pumpkin and squash are the hardest to grow imo.

[MaseyMase]

No i too havent noticed much difference, perhaps its just the order theyre delivered to the market/barns in? Some years my farms will begin to harvest wheat and cabbage ( so far) and wheat is eaten almost immediately, some years cabbage is gone first, I don't know if there is a mechanism to it.

[rubycando]

CONSUMPTION:
Each citizen even children eat around 100 units of food per year. They choose randomly what they eat from food types available to them, either stored at home or available at markets or storage barns if homes need resupply. Citizens eat roughly once every few months (2 on average) more frequently wen health levels are low, but in smaller quantities, around 8 food per month.
They will eat an equal amount (roughly) of food types from each category available to them in a year time. For example about 50% each vegetables and fruits when ONLY vegetables and fruits are available, etc regardless of how many vegetable and fruit types you offer them . Plan production to account for diet. Sometimes a smaller number of citizens can consume a larger amount of a category of food when they lack 2 or more categories compared with a larger populations that has all 4 categories available to them.
100 people eat 10.000 food. 2500 each of apples, venison, corn and beans, for example, when all available. But they will eat 5000 apples and 5000 corn, when that's all they can get (consumption for 200 people when 4 categories are available).

DIET

There are 4 food categories in game, PROTEIN, VEGETABLES, GRAINS and FRUITS, each of them can be provided to your people usually from several sources (buildings or fields), with the exception of grains which can only be produced by crop fields/farms. You can trade for any and ALL food types from all categories, however not all traders coming to your docks will accept food as a currency and for trading purposes any food type (beef, venison, pepper, mushrooms, corn etc) count as food regardless of their trading value! Feeding your people requires you to provide food from at least one category and eventually at least one food type from all four categories.

This is referred to as diet, and it directly affects the general health of your people which makes them healthier (less prone to spontaneous disease outbreaks, or rather more resistant to disease in general), more capable for work without interruptions and thus more productive, and it avoids the constant usage of herbs (the only way to increase health outside providing your people with food from all four categories).

The health of your people will constantly decrease by one full heart per year when only one food category is available, half a heart per year when 2 categories are available, will not change with 3 categories available and seem to increase by half a heart per year when all 4 categories are provided.

There is currently NO advantage obtained by providing your citizens with more than one type/source per category, in fact due to the way Market buildings work is better not to!

FOOD CATEGORIES
[source : [url=http://shiningrocksoftware.com/forum/discussion/3606/food-types-a-ready-reckoner,]http://shiningrocksoftware.com/forum/discussion/3606/food-types-a-ready-reckoner,[/url] all credit belongs to Kangaredditroo for putting together this info]
Random supply : the price of goods when the merchant randomly chooses what to sell
Ordered supply : the price of goods when you ask a merchant to carry that good (once or always it doesn't matter). Ordered goods suffer a 25% price increase across the board (all goods) from base price (random supply)

PROTEIN:

Food Type Source Random Supply
Beef - Cattle (pasture) - 3
Chicken - Chicken (pasture) - 3
Eggs - Chicken (pasture) - 2
Mutton - Sheep (pasture) - 3
Venison - Deer (hunter cabin) - 3
Fish - Fish (fishing dock) - 1
Chestnut - Farming (orchard) - 1
Pecan - Farming (orchard) - 1
Walnut - Farming (orchard) - 1


FRUITS

Food Type Source Random Supply
Apple - Farming (orchard) - 1
Cherry - Farming (orchard) - 1
Peach - Farming (orchard) - 1
Pear - Farming (orchard) - 1
Plum - Farming (orchard) - 1
Berries - Forrest (gatherer hut) - 1


VEGETABLES

Food Type Source Random Supply
Bean - Farming (crops) - 1
Cabbage - Farming (crops) - 1
Pepper - Farming (crops) - 1
Potatoes - Farming (crops) - 1
Pumpkin - Farming (crops) - 1
Squash - Farming (crops) - 1
Mushrooms - Forrest (gatherer hut) - 1
Onions - Forrest (gatherer hut) - 1
Roots - Forrest (gatherer hut) - 1


GRAINS

Food Type Source Random Supply
Corn - Farming (crops) - 1
Wheat - Farming (crops) - 1

[kevinshow]

Originally posted by bfree1118:

The following was posted by another user, but as a general rule one farmer can handle the following: Farms 56 squares 8x7, Orchards 72 squares, Pasture 198 squares 11x18 which holds the following: 9 cows, 12 sheep, 33 chickens.

On small maps, this is OK but I would suggest getting at least 10 cows on medium and larger maps, in particular for larger maps. This allows you to split off the herd if needed. However, if one plays without the need for splitting then this is good.

As for what I noticed: bean and wheat do harvest earlier in the year, so all things being equal (such as house distance, barn distance, etc) you can have a little bit bigger field for those crops. Squash also can be harvested even up to late winter (Iirc) so that can start later or have a bigger field also.

Although there is no kind of bread-making recipe but the villagers do use wheat as a food source (and presumably turn it into something cooked, just like they do for the raw chicken or beef), so if you plan to use it for alcohol also, you may want to take that into consideration when making your setup.