We need a way to compliment food spoilage.

[Gotcha]

I like the food spoilage mechanic but I now find myself trading for food every spring time as the food I harvested last year has spoiled.

Maybe some more food preservation techniques can be added to the game like more salted meats, pickled foods, potted foods or even root cellars.

[kiska87]

Originally posted by Gotcha:

I like the food spoilage mechanic but I now find myself trading for food every spring time as the food I harvested last year has spoiled.

You mean the food you harvested on the farm?

As far as I've observed, potatoes belong to the medium shelf life (18 months) and buckwheat doesn't even spoil at all.

I haven't tested yet how long the meat types last, but as for fish, if you salt them for dried fish, they don't spoil then, too.

The food spoilage was introduced recently with Alpha 5, so I guess more options are planned.

+1 for your suggested pickled and potted foods

As for the meat, there could be a way to smoke them for smoked meat.

I don't know how the people in the Ukraine preserved their food back then, but I'm interested to see this when Yev add this to the game.

But on the other hand, if you can preserve every single food item so that it doesn't spoil at all, then the whole food spoilage would be useless.

[Gotcha]

Ah, I didn't write the original post very well, I was referring more to the produce the villagers grow on their properties. Maybe there could be a way for them to pickle their veg to extend their shelf life over the winter?

I love the idea of smoked meats however. Any additional production chains is welcomed by me!

I don't ever run out of food, I just get the 'lack of variety' warning all over my village, so I guess I'm hoping Yev can add some additional production chains like pickling or even bread that will provide variety over the winter/ spring.

[kiska87]

Their garden produces belong to the different shelf life categories.
Peas for example don't spoil. As for the other veggies I'm not 100 % sure but as far as I've seen garlic lasts longer than carrots for example.

There are no bakeries in this game, but when you mill wheat into flour, you can sell this to your people for more variety.

I also recommend to build a fishery and buy some salt (if you don't produce this yet) and then tick that box for "only produce dried fish". As I said in my previous post, dried fish lasts forever.

A farm (for potatoes and buckwheat) also helps with food variety.

[Bjørn]

Originally posted by kiska87:

I also recommend to build a fishery and buy some salt (if you don't produce this yet)

Saltworks is a good investment since only 2-3 workers will produce lots of salt, enough for export, fisheries, butcher, and to sell in market stalls to citizens. Salt has saved me a few times when I ran out of other foods to sell in market stalls!

I think most of the garden produce I've observed so far have lasted until next harvest, unless I'm 'sold out', but tbh I haven't looked too carefully at the graphs yet. Not had import food yet.

I also love the new spoilage system and statistics options, although I miss the 'full' report screen with last year's numbers. Too many columns now, I guess.

[jessi81]

I also like the spoiling, but for me it's always cherry and apricot I harvest at the orchard that I need to throw away because I can't sell/use it in time :-( However, I might just not have found the right town to sell it to yet. I always see apples, but those last way longer and are not really a problem.
Maybe making jam might also be an idea? (Not sure if that's historically accurate though, but I guess it was available at the time already in some form...)

[Vic_Ukraine]

I think apples and cherries and apricots were dried in the sun.

[Vic_Ukraine]

only apples can be exported from orchards. + in that apples can be exported through a warehouse and by river

[bigbadjohn3879]

I would say canning but that didn't happen till close to the 1800's, don't know about dried fruit and how it was produced but that could be like a luxury item for the people. Adding a cold cellar would be a nice idea but also being able to harvest ice during the winter to put down there to help preserve the cold storage. I know they used to do that and then cover it with hay to help it from melting.

[juliejayne]

Originally posted by Vic_Ukraine:

only apples can be exported from orchards. + in that apples can be exported through a warehouse and by river

Thanks, I was wondering. Saved me from having to test apricots.

[Bjørn]

I've skipped apricots and cherries on my alpha 5 game after reading about the quick spoilage of those. Will be interesting to see if there are further plans for them!

Apples are very common to grow in Norway, and typically used for juice / cider, but not the other 2 (although something called 'sweet cherries' ('morell' in Norwegian) were grown since mid 1700s, I just read), so not much experience with how they were used in real life back then. Not even sure I've tried an apricot!

[Claybot]

Its too bad we couldn't convert the spoiled food into compost/fertiliser to use on the fields to boost crop growth.

[Frodo]

Originally posted by Bjørn:

I've skipped apricots and cherries on my alpha 5 game after reading about the quick spoilage of those. Will be interesting to see if there are further plans for them!

Apples are very common to grow in Norway, and typically used for juice / cider, but not the other 2 (although something called 'sweet cherries' ('morell' in Norwegian) were grown since mid 1700s, I just read), so not much experience with how they were used in real life back then. Not even sure I've tried an apricot!

ohh, so thats what happened. Was wondering why I always had a bunch of apples, but not any cherries or apricots. They had probably spoiled when I checked a while after harvest.

[MainKuat]

i can witness this cherries and apricots from orchard and berries from house garden. they always not able to sell, they spoiled even before arrive at markets stall.

so, i just plant apple in this alpha-5. you can export them too.

[GordonDry]

The root cellar needs to come first.
Should be easy to implement, imho, when observing the way the game goes.
The stored root and cabbage vegetables should at least get double the spoilage time - perhaps even varying from type to type - as long as they are inside the root cellar.

[juliejayne]

Cherries and Apricots, directly into Dried fruit, and now with a gradual harvest, we will have dried fruit for everyone.