The Importance of a Well-Stocked Larder in Harvest Mooon

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I will publish posts about marriage to the remaining bachelors soon but I wished to write about something more general first: the importance of keeping a well-stocked refrigerator and shelf in Harvest Moon games.

There is a reason NOT to ship everything in Harvest Moon. Even though you won't be able to purchase a Kitchen in the first Spring, store some Spring crops and Spring wild grasses in your rucksack until you are able to transfer them to a Refrigerator. You will need EVERY item at some point to complete a recipe.

I wrote previously about the useful nature of Weeds and Junk Ore in creating Failed Dishes. In terms of ingredients, EVERY type of Wild Grass is vital in creating valuable dishes such as Rainbow Curry, Ultimate Curry, Finest Curry and Elli Leaves.

In Spring, you will be able to find two types of Wild Grass: Yellow Grass and Orange Grass. A beginner may look at the description of Orange Grass and think it is an item that is useless because it has no effect on Stamina or Fatigue. Well, consumed raw it is useless, but it can be used to create Orange Curry, a necessary ingredient in Rainbow Curry.

In Summer, you will find many different kinds of Wild Grasses, including Red Grass. Red Grass consumed raw is poisonous. Again, a beginner may consider it wrongly to be useless... but it can be used to create Red Curry, a necessary component of Rainbow Curry.

Rainbow Curry is a popular dish in its own right but beyond that, it is an ingredient both in Ultimate Curry and Finest Curry.

Furthermore, Spring Crops should be saved not only for use in recipes when you do have a kitchen because you will not be able to buy Spring Seeds in any season other than Spring. The same holds true for every Crop, apart from the seeds sold at the Casino Window, available throughout the year.

Remember that, once you have a Seedmaker, any Crop can be transformed into Seeds. Furthermore, once you have a Basement and the appropriate Sun, you will be able to grow crops year-round.

Every item has value... whether as a gift to win some one's heart or as an ingredient in a recipe. Never mistake a low shipping value for the ONLY value an item has.

I have included three photographs of my Refrigerator in the first week of Winter in my first Year. As you can see, I have every crop from every season, as well as all Wild Grasses. I have all types of Curry and every type of Failed Dish. The lone Big Fish at the bottom of the last 'page' is the gift from Mukumuku. I am a sentimental player. I always keep gifts from individuals. The rest of my Big Fish are on another 'page' but I wish to keep Mukumuku's gift separate. It is stored at the end of the last 'page' of Refrigerator items so the kitchen will not use it in cooking a recipe that uses a Big Fish...

These photographs are from HM Cute DS but the original Harvest Moon DS is the same where items are concerned. I will try to take some photographs of my old FoMT and MFoMT games as well in future. They do say a picture is worth a thousand words...

One final point: players often ask me how I can rescue 60 Sprites in my first year or marry some one before the end of the first year. Well, time is relative in Harvest Moon. I choose to play my games very slowly, to wring the maximum amount from each day of gameplay. Some players race through the seasons and years. I like to experience every event possible, to perform every task, to make every day COUNT. That is how I do everything 'so quickly'. It really isn't quick at all in terms of 'real time'! I can spend many real hours on a single Harvest Moon day.