This guide will teach you everything you need to know about Stardew Valley Special Crops!
Stardew Valley is home to an assortment of crops. What’s special about crops in this game is how it emulates the essence of plant diversity, just like in real life. There are crops you can plant only in Summer, and there are those you can plant all year. Some crops have a high-value price in the market, and some don’t cost much but are still fun to grow. You can buy seeds just around the corner, but some require a bit of a challenge to purchase.
In this Stardew Valley guide, we will learn about Special Crops and the necessary extra steps that you need to take to obtain them.
Coffee
Drinking coffee guarantees an increase in speed. Coffee is a perfect morning drink before making rounds in your farmhouse or traversing the town, as it will also boost your horse’s speed when riding it.
You can buy coffee beans from the Traveling Merchant for 2,500 gold. Since she changes her stock each time she’s in Cindersap Forest, you can try checking her cart for Coffee Beans at every chance you get. Speaking of which, there’s a likely chance that Coffee Beans will also drop from Dust Sprites in The Mines.
Coffee can be a great source of money, especially in your first year as a farmer. It might seem like 15 gold per coffee is not much, but you can gather four coffee beans for each crop you harvest. If you plant coffee beans in a 15×15 tile, you can harvest 900 pieces of coffee beans and earn 13,500 gold daily.
Place 5 coffee beans in a Keg to make a cup of coffee. Harvey loves coffee. If you want to get on good terms with him, bring him at least one cup of coffee two times a week.
Using three cups of coffee, you can make a Three Shot Expresso in the kitchen or the Cookout Kit.
Coffee can grow in Spring and Summer and even regrow two days after being harvested.
Strawberries
Strawberries can provide lots of gold but can be difficult to procure. Pierre, for some reason, does not sell them in his store. However, he will still offer Strawberry seeds to you once a year. So where can you possibly buy them then?
They are available at the Egg festival in Spring 13 at the price of 100 gold each. Suppose you can try to stack up these seeds because you can’t purchase them again for the rest of the year. Strawberries can only grow in spring but can sprout again in those same plants after four days.
A good strategy in getting the most out of your Strawberries is to plant the seeds immediately after buying them so you can get at least three harvests from them before they wilt in Summer, thereby getting more profits.
If you can produce Iridium quality strawberries, you can sell them for 240 gold each. The Tiller profession can also increase its price to 264 gold per Strawberry.
Oasis crops (Starfruit, Rhubarb, and Beet)
These crops are particular because you can’t get them in Pierre’s General Store or the Jojamart Store. You can only purchase them at the Oasis, Sandy’s store in The Desert. The Traveling Merchant will occasionally have Rhubarb, Beet, and Starfruit seeds in her cart.
Rhubarb and Beet crops don’t sell much, but they can be used for gifting and cooking. You can make a rhubarb pie and give it to Marnie, which she would love. If you like cooking food in this game, it would be best to hoard tons of beets because they can be processed into sugar using a Mill.
Starfruit is among the most profitable fruit crops as its base price is already worth 750 gold. You can increase its price to 2,200 gold if you preserve it in a Keg. Aging Iridium Quality Starfruit Wine in a Barell can earn you 4,500 gold each. But that’s not all; if you choose the Artisan Profession, you can sell each for 6,300 gold.
Read: How to Get Dinosaur Eggs in Stardew Valley
Kent would appreciate you giving him a Starfruit after he requests one from you in the mail. Fulfilling this request will grant you 500 gold and one friendship point with Kent. You might also need a Starfruit to complete the Dye Bundle in the Community Center.
Plant Starfruit seeds in Summer, which will mature into crops after 13 days.
Sweet Gem Berries
On top of being ‘rare,’ Sweet Gem Berries are in the running to be the most profitable crop in Stardew Valley.
Sweet Gem Berries grow from Rare Seeds, which can be bought from The Traveling Cart for 1,000 gold. It is a bit pricey since, unlike strawberry seeds, it will not regrow after being harvested, but if you have a Seed Maker, that won’t be much of a problem.
This crop can only be planted in the Fall, and it takes 24 days to grow. If you purchased Rare seeds late in the season, it would be better to plant them in your 2nd year if you don’t want to witness them wilt when Winter comes. Or you can wait until you have a Greenhouse to raise and cultivate them at your heart’s content anytime you want.
If you give a Sweet Gem Berry to the statue named Old Master Cannoli in the Secret Woods, you will be rewarded with a Stardrop from him. A Stardrop is like a permanent power-up that can increase your maximum energy.
Sweet Gem Berry crops can earn you as much as 6,000 gold each. Unfortunately, you can’t put it in a Preserves Jar or Keg since it is not fruit. Thus, you won’t be able to turn it into juice or wine.
Ancient Fruits
There are many ways to obtain Ancient Seeds, but none are as easy as buying them from a local store a few meters away from your home.
An Ancient Seed will be given to you by Gunther once you donate an Ancient Artifact to his Museum. You can also find this seed by digging them up in Artifact Spots in The Mountains and Cindersap Forest. They can also drop from slaying monsters like Bugs and Cave Flies in The Mines.
There’s also a possibility of obtaining them in Treasure Chests you might find when fishing. If you’re having a lucky day, the Traveling Merchant could also have it when she’s in Cindersap Forest.
Ancient Fruit is easy to produce because it is a perennial crop. In other words, you can grow it in Spring, Summer, and Fall. After planting the seeds, they will mature in just 28 days. What’s good about them is they can be harvested again after a week.
Another thing you can do about these crops is put them inside Preserve Jars and Kegs to turn them into Artisan products. The best thing about Ancient Fruits is that you can age them in Barrels for two seasons to get Iridium Quality Ancient Fruit Wine. One bottle of Iridium Ancient Fruit Wine can earn you a staggering amount of 6,750 gold!
One can make a billion gold with many Ancient Fruits in a year, especially if you have a Greenhouse. But you can profit more if you plant Ancient seeds on the Ginger Island farm.
Regardless of the season, you can grow all kinds of crops on the Ginger Island Farm. Adding Fertilizers will also permanently affect the soil as long as crops are in them. Imagine all the quality crops you can harvest if you grow Ancient Fruits on the Ginger Island Farm all year.
Profits aside, Ancient Fruits will also be instrumental in finishing the Rare Crops Bundle quest. Without an Ancient Fruit, you won’t be able to complete the Missing Bundle in The Abandoned Jojamart Warehouse.
