Orchards vs Farms

[Dirty Dan]

So what farming setup do you folks have as far as orchards and famrs go? Do you rely solely on one or the other? And which one is more efficient? I would use more orchards if I had a brewable material but I'm working my way towards trading for one. Also some of my orchards' trees die occasionally. Is there a way around this?

[The Haney]

I'm not quite sure which is more efficient, but I DO know that individual trees will die and be replanted, and the trees produce more as they get older.

[bauerbach]

I find a 15x15 fully staffed farm produces around 1200food/year.

IME, a gathers hut can pull in upwards of 2-3000.

Simply put, I dont use either...

[poulpy]

I use both of them because it brings more variety of foods to my villagers.
I don't know if focusing Orchards or farms is better but I want my villagers to enjoy many kinds of food :)

[PureOrionBelt]

I use a 7x7 orchard, as it is the most efficient for one farmer. Also I use 5x10 or 7x7 for my farms too. That way you only need one farmer per farm plot and you do not lose as much if you have an infestation. It is a liitle more micromanaging, but is nedded on a harsh/disaster map.

[Uar]

I use every kind of food production.... if you just use gathers you wont get grain or meat which plays into health. I dont know about you but I would rather have a wide selection of foods. Beef, mutton, fish, chicken, eggs, nuts, fruits, grains, veggies etc The game is rather small, I tend to try and think of the villages well being. That means taking care of them and that means using less efficient means of food gathering then so be it.

[PureOrionBelt]

Also it depends on the crops. The fast growing crops like beans do not give ayou a large net food supply, while the longer groging ones like wheat give you a larger net. usually a 50 square farm will produce ~600 for the faster crops and ~800 for the slow ones. a 7x7 orchard seems to get ~600 the first harvestable season, while the end crops will be ~1000. But after they start falling you end up with an average of ~600 a year.

[avaji]

While a gatherers hut produces more food than a farm, you can fit 5 farms in the same area as one gatheres hut. Gatherers are great early game when you have a lack of people, and farms are better later on when you have tons of people but lack room to build.

[Uar]

But part of the good things about crops is they are ready at different times of the year. Beans are a great food bump in the summer while late fall early winter pumpkins, squash etc start to come in.

[drakonz]

use everything that ensures max health and happiness for villagers and that way you most likely dont get wiped out when one resource starts failing (resource disaster can only spread to same resource type so if you lose all your chickens to it your trees and farms wont be affected) farms is sligly more effective but trees are better for making drinks most of the time and require smaller area (so trees are more effective for ammount of land used but require more workers) and provide wood before they have to be replanted

[Itharus]

Yeah, plant a variety. For the record though, chestnuts seem to have pretty good yields.

[Jaguar]

I've noticed a difference in happiness depending on food types available. If I have thousands of venison and fish, and a handfu of gathered food, I'll struggle to maintain over 3 happiness. But if I have a few different farms, a couple different orchards (nuts seem to add a lot to happiness, but I could be imagining it) some chickens or sheep, happiness is a lot easier to keep near 5 and people seem to never get sick.

[AlexMBrennan]

Use pastures, and trade surplus leather/wool/cloathing for food (1 hide cloak = 15 basic food like beans/corn)