Quick Reference: Wine and Jelly, Juice and Pickle

A quick guide into getting the most gold per unit of produce with the Keg and the Preserves Jar

Organization

This guide is a simple list of what is more valuable in kegs and in preserve jars. The lists are sorted into seasons and organized by putting the most valuable produce at the top.

Things to Preserve

The following crops should NEVER be made into wine or juice; they are more valuable in preserves jars. If the player has run out of all these crops, start to work on the keg lists, starting from the bottom. This will result in some loss of absolute value, but that is better than leaving your jars idle.

Spring

• Cauliflower
  
• Kale
  
• Potato
  
• Garlic
  
• Apricot
  
• Green Bean
  
• Parsnip
  
• Salmonberry

Summer

• Radish
  
• Fiddlehead Fern
  
• Tomato
  
• Blueberry
  
• Corn*
  
• Hot Pepper

Fall

• Yam
  
• Artichoke
  
• Amaranth
  
• Beet*
  
• Bok Choy
  
• Eggplant
  
• Corn*
  
• Blackberry

*Beets may instead be used for making Sugar. Corn may instead be turned into oil. These are less valuable, but may be useful for cooking.

Things to Keg

These crops are all more valuable in the Keg than in the preserve jar. With the exceptions of Wheat and Hops, the Keg is much slower than the jars are. It is likely that the player will be forced to cannibalize some of this list to feed into jars. Crops closer to the bottom of the list are going to represent less lost potential than crops near the top.

Spring

• Ancient Fruit
  
• Rhubarb
  
• Strawberry
  
• Cherry

Summer

• Starfruit
  
• Ancient Fruit
  
• Melon
  
• Red Cabbage
  
• Peach
  
• Hops
  
• Orange
  
• Grape
  
• Spice Berry
  
• Wheat*

Fall

• Ancient Fruit
  
• Pumpkin
  
• Pomegranate
  
• Apple
  
• Grape
  
• Wild Plum
  
• Cranberry
  
• Wheat*

*Wheat can instead be made into flour for cooking.

The Math

Base Value
The base value of produce is defined as the sale price of a single unit that does not have a quality star, unmodified by any character bonuses (such as the Tiller profession).

Jelly and Pickles
No matter what you put into a Preserves Jar, the output is worth twice the base value plus a flat fifty. The Jar always takes two and a half days to process a unit.

Juice
Most vegetables become Juice. Juice is valued at 2.25 times the base value of the vegetable and takes 4 days to process.
Juice vs Pickles
The extra 25% base value must exceed 50 gold, meaning the full base value of the vegetable must exceed 200 gold. Only two vegetables achieve this: pumpkins and red cabbage.

Wine
All fruits become Wine. The value of wine is 3 times the base value of the fruit, and it takes 7 days to process.
Wine vs Jelly
The extra 100% base value must exceed 50 gold, so the full value of the fruit must exceed 50 gold. The majority of fruits achieve this. Blueberries and apricots are worth exactly 50 gold, and so should be made into jelly because the processing time is less.
Aged Wine vs Jelly
Wine can increase in quality through use of casks, whereas jelly cannot. In practice, the amount of time it takes to get quality wine is not worth the processing time, but in theory every wine except salmonberry can be made more valuable than the equivalent jelly.

Beer and Pale Ale
Beer and Pale Ale are made by placing wheat and hops in Kegs, which takes a little over a day. The results are faster and more valuable than pickling either in a Preserves Jar.

Coffee
Coffee takes two hours in a keg and doubles the cumulative base price of the coffee beans used to brew it. Coffee beans have no other practical use.

Mead
Mead is brewed in a Keg using honey and sells for 200g. This takes ten hours. While this is a valuable boost to wild honey, it is only moderate for tulip honey, no increase for blue jazz, and a loss for all other honeys. Aging can turn a profit for most honey, but the time spent aging could be put to better use. Fairy rose honey is more valuable than iridium-star aged mead.

[jpaul.army999]

Thanks. Still usefull in 2023 for my new to the Dew artisan needs 🫡

[Moon_Shadow]

Crystal fruit also something to look forward to throw in the Keg in Winter since it gives you 450g per fruit wine. i think the process took 3-4 days. Which I think Hops and wheat much more worth per time. -_-'

[ehyder]

If not going for artisan profession (and before getting the artisan bonus) you are better off turning the corn into seeds and selling the corn seeds rather than putting the corn in the preserves jar.

[Ryvaken Tadrya]

Not really. All the information is available on the wiki, and there are a couple other guides like this on Steam. Just none that organized it like this.

[MrTailson]

Wow, holy crap. Thank you for putting all the effort into making this guide. This is insane math and must've taken forever to experiment with.