Your Kitchen in Hero of Leaf Valley

I am not the only player who experienced a little thrill the first time I walked into my new kitchen. First of all, whenever you obtain a Kitchen in Harvest Moon, you feel that you finally have ARRIVED. Your life becomes so much easier and cooking IS fun. All those raw ingredients that you toted about in your Rucksack for weeks now can be stored in the fridge or USED to create new dishes.

It may be possible to obtain the House expansion in Spring but most players do it immediately after the Summer Races. A House Expansion, after all, is desirable, but there are other expenses in Spring that need to take priority. Furthermore, you have to order one of the existing projects on Woody's Menu before the House Expansion in the form of Kitchen, Bath and Toilet will be unlocked.

The Kitchen, Bath and Toilet are situated in a separate chamber. You will awaken to find that your bed has been moved but if you expect to find a small kitchen counter in the same room, you will search in vain. Walk through the opening in the centre of the eastern wall and...

From the Journal of a good friend who is a Harvest Moon comrade as well:

'OMG… the kitchen is beautiful! When I woke up I’m like hey why is my bed moved? Oh yeh, the kitchen! Walk around looking….where is it? Slight sucking in of breath upon seeing it! Very pleasantly surprised. I had expected a starter kitchen like Joe and Kurt's.'

Players of A Wonderful Life/Another Wonderful Life may recall similar experiences with respect to the Kitchen in those games.

If you consider the premise of HoLV, which is story-driven, it makes sense to allow a player to obtain a Kitchen, Bath and Toilet as a single building project. After all, the business of saving the homeland must take precedence over everything else. Other Harvest Moon games that divide the House Expansion, Kitchen, Bath and Toilet expansions into four and sometimes even five different upgrades do not have the same urgency or time limit where the plot of the game is concerned. You have only two years to save Leaf Valley in HoLV. The HM gods mercifully decreed that, with the weight of this responsibility resting upon your shoulders, you should be allowed the benefit of cooking, bathing and changing your clothes with a single home upgrade.

For my part, it was the additional storage space that thrilled me most when my new house expansion was unveiled to me. Even with the Large Rucksack, I never had sufficient space, and it saddened me whenever I was forced to give away, sell or consume a seasonal item simply in order to free a slot in my Rucksack.

I, of course, had hoped to make every Cooked Dish as early as possible, but I finally had to dispose of my Apples and Oranges in the interest of space. No longer, though! All edible items can go into the Fridge, to await future use...

Your initial Kitchen provides you with a small Frying Pan and a small Pot. These allow you to cook any Dish that requires only one ingredient. Although all Recipes are included in my HoLV Cookbook Recipes Guide, I included an 'Easy Recipes' section in my HoLV Walkthrough/General Guide that gives all the Single-Ingredient Recipes for Pot and Frying Pan.

Remember that Cooked Dishes often are 'Wanted Items' by local merchants. In Summer, Corn is on the Wanted Items list at Clove Villa but Ronald's Wanted Items List includes Fried Corn. Martha will pay 60G for raw Corn, but Ronald will pay 100G for the same ear of Corn when it has been cooked in a Frying Pan. the Wanted Items Lists for every Season are included both in my HoLV Walkthrough/General Guide and my HoLV Shops and Businesses Guide.

The items that are the subject of Delivery Requests often are out-of-season. Once you have a Kitchen, it is easier to store Crops, Fish and items from the Wilds in anticipation of a future Delivery Request.

At the end of the first Summer, it is worthwhile to consider a potentially profitable Wanted Item that will go into effect on 1 Autumn. Scrap Metal usually sells for 10G, but during the Autumn Season, Louis will pay 30G for each piece of Scrap Metal. Unfortunately, you can store only a total of 99 items of any variety in your Toolbox. A single slot will take 99 items, but if you attempt to fill a second slot with the overflow, the Toolbox will not accept the items. You therefore must keep any excess Scrap Metal in your Rucksack if you wish to profit from Louis' need for the item in Autumn.

In the screenshots of the Kitchen, you will note that Freyr is dressed in an outfit that is different from the one worn throughout the pre-Kitchen period. A change of clothing is a benefit of taking a Bath in HoLV.

Incidentally, there is one very frustrating aspect in HoLV where the Bath is concerned. There is no prompt whatsoever at the door of the Bath or Toilet. If you stray too close to the door, your Character will slide right in, have a bath as quick as lightning and be out again, clearing the water from his ears... having WASTED his daily Bath while his energy still was at the full! I have done this twice early in the morning after cooking up some quick dishes at the counter... Very annoying! It wouldn't matter if you could have multiple baths, but only the first one counts, so it is very exasperating when your Character decides to have a quick bath without permission!

Additional Requirement for Marriage in IoH

In many Harvest Moon games, you need more than a larger house and a 'Big Bed' if you wish to marry. You need a kitchen as well. I have not listed a kitchen as a requirement for marriage previously in Island of Happiness, but it may be one of the basic prerequisites.

I believe now that you do have to have all main characters on the Island in order to be able to marry. Every player who has been unable to marry has not had a major character. This information will be added to my guide.

It actually makes sense. I wrote a warning about not marrying in haste because some of the characters do not even arrive until later in the game... apparently the game is set up to force you to at least MEET every one, giving them some chance to impress you!

The confirmed requirements for marriage therefore are as follows:

1. Experience all Heart Events: Introduction Event, Purple Heart Event, Blue Heart Event and Yellow Heart Event; (Events vary according to your response during the Event; if you make the WRONG response during the Yellow Heart Event, you may need to experience a Recovery Event as well);
2. Have the Eligible Girl/Bachelor at 60,000 AP, deepest red heart level;
3. Have the Large House and buy the Husband/Wife Bed from Chen;
4. Have the Harvest Goddess at minimum 2 hearts and make certain Alisa and Nathan have not left the Island;
5. Have all main characters on the Island;
6. Buy the Blue Feather from Chen and experience the Popping the Question Event;

Actually, having a Kitchen IS a requirement, in a sort of oblique fashion, because you cannot have Pierre on the Island if you haven't obtained five Recipes and you never will obtain any without a Kitchen! Pierre is one of the main characters and you need to entice him onto the Island as well as all other main characters in order to marry...

To have all main characters on the island, you need to pursue ALL activities. Denny and Lanna arrive only if you have done quite a bit of fishing, Sabrina's arrival requires mining, Pierre's arrival requires Recipes and the unlocking of all areas, Shea's meeting requires the bridge to the Jungle and Mark/Chelsea only arrive when you have over 50% completion... so marriage can't be your only focus.

The Little Things in Harvest Moon: Virtues of Cooking

In an earlier post, I listed the first Cooked Dishes that could be made in Harvest Moon DS and Harvest Moon Cute DS as soon as you acquire a kitchen but do not have any implements. In that post, I concentrated on the value of Cooked Dishes as gifts for other people. In this post, I am going to discuss the virtue of Cooked Dishes primarily in terms of restoring energy.

The first implement that you can obtain from the Shopping Network is the Mixer. With the Mixer, you can transform Fruits and Vegetables into Juices and Lattes and make a couple of very important basic items like Butter and Ketchup. You actually can make Fish Sticks as well.

Again, I am not going to list ALL the Mixer Recipes here but only the ones that can be made in the first half of the first Summer of gameplay.

Fruit Juice
1 Strawberry

Fruit Latte
1 Fruit Juice
1 Milk

Vegetable Juice
1 Cucumber
1 Milk

Vegetable Latte
1 Vegetable Juice
1 Milk

Mix Juice
1 Fruit Juice
1 Vegetable Juice

Mix Latte
1 Mix Juice
1 Milk

Strawberry Milk
1 Strawberry
1 Milk

Tomato Juice
1 Tomato

Peach Juice
1 Peach

Grape Juice
1 Wild Grape

Butter
1 Milk

Ketchup
1 Tomato
1 Onion

Fish Sticks
1 Medium or 1 Large Fish

Here are the energy values for each of these dishes:

Fruit Juice: +20 SR -15 FR
Fruit Latte: +30 SR -15 FR
Vegetable Juice: +20 SR -20 FR
Vegetable Latte: +30 SR -20 FR
Mix Juice: +50 SR -30 FR
Mix Latte: +60 SR -20 FR
Strawberry Milk: +30 SR -15 FR
Tomato Juice: +20 SR -20 FR
Grape Juice: +7 SR -13 FR
Peach Juice: +10 SR -10 FR
Fish Sticks: +5 SR -1 FR

Butter: +1 SR -0 FR
Ketchup: +1 SR -0 FR

It will come as no surprise to discover that the energy values of Butter and Ketchup are minimal. What is interesting is the difference between the Energy Values of a Medium Fish consumed without cooking preparation, the same Medium Fish blended in a Mixer into Fish Sticks and the same Medium Fish made into Sashimi as a 'No Tool' Recipe. Here are the values:

Medium Fish eaten raw: +4 SR -1 FR
Fish Sticks: +5 SR -1 FR
Sashimi: +30 SR -3 FR

The simple act of throwing a crop into a Mixer can enhance its energy values enormously. Not all crops can be made into Juice, but many can. Here are the differences between the raw crop and the same crop as Juice:

Strawberry Milk: +30 SR -15 FR
Strawberry: +5 SR -2 FR

Tomato Juice: +20 SR -20 FR
Tomato: +4 SR -1 FR

Grape Juice: +7 SR -13 FR
Wild Grape: +10 SR -2 FR

Peach Juice: +10 SR -10 FR
Peach: +2 SR -3 FR

As you can see, in most cases, the Stamina value will be far greater if the crop is made into Juice. The Fatigue recovery will be substantially greater as well. The only anomaly here is the Wild Grape. It has a much higher Stamina value when consumed raw BUT its value in terms of reducing Fatigue is far greater when made into Juice. Grape Juice, by the way, can be made either with a regular Grape from a grapevine or from a wild grape.

Very often, players of Harvest Moon games become seduced by the concept of Elli Leaves and focus on them exclusively when cooking for energy purposes, but as you can see, there are many easy recipes for cooked dishes that will restore energy significantly. Elli Leaves cannot be made until you have EVERY cooking implement in your kitchen. The recipes given here require nothing more than the Mixer.

Tips on Cooking in HM DS and HM Cute DS

This information will be included in my new General Guide for Cute as well as my Cooking Guide but meanwhile, I have created a little tip section for players of either game.

If you are the sort of player who, like me, tries to unlock or acquire every item as soon as possible in the game, you will find that the earliest date when you can have a Kitchen is Monday, 14 Summer. When your kitchen is delivered, you will be fairly limited in the dishes you will be able to prepare, not having any implements yet.

Here is a list of the Recipes you CAN make without any implements with notes about the characters who like them. It is valid both for the original Harvest Moon DS and for the upcoming Harvest Moon Cute.

Your First Recipes:

Your First Recipes in Harvest Moon Cute will be 'No Tool' Recipes. Those that you will be able to make in the first half of Summer are as follows:

Mayonnaise:
Egg (S), Oil

Salad:
Cucumber and/or
Tomato and/or
Cabbage
N.B. In HM Cute, using more than one of these is simply a waste of ingredients. It will not change the SR or the FR. You could use a Carrot as well, but you won't have that until Autumn and by then, you should have all Cooking Implements and a wealth of recipes. Lumina, Karen, Rock, Cody and Vesta like Salad but the real advantage of making it is as a gift for Wally. It is the first gift you can obtain that will raise his FP by +9.

Sandwich:
Bread
Tomato and/or
Cucumber
N.B. In HM Cute, using more than one of these 'fillings' is simply a waste of ingredients and will not affect SR or FR. You can use a Boiled Egg as well, but you won't have a Pot at this point. Cliff loves sandwich and it is one of the first items that will raise his AP by +500 and FP by +9.

Fruit Sandwich:
Bread
Strawberry and/or
Peach
N.B. In HM Cute, using more than one 'filling' will not improve SR or FR. Later in Summer, you can make a Fruit Sandwich with a Pineapple and next year, with any Fruit, but at the moment, only Strawberries and Peach will be available.

Pickled Turnip
Turnip
N.B. This is one of the easiest recipes in any Harvest Moon game and is a dish that pleases most senior citizens. Of the bachelors, Gustafa alone loves it but it is one of the first items that will raise his AP by +500 and his FP by +9. Of other young people, Nami and Karen alone like Pickled Turnips. It is one of the first items that will raise Takakura's FP by +9.

Pickled Cucumber
Cucumber
N.B. Another easy recipe. The same individuals who love Pickled Turnip on the whole will love Pickled Cucumber. It is one of the first items that will raise Gustafa's AP by 500 and FP by 9 and one of the first to raise Takakura's FP by 9.

Bamboo Rice
Bamboo Shoot
Riceball
N.B. An easy dish but a few people actively dislike it, so be careful.

Sushi
Riceball
Sashimi
N.B. This is a great recipe and one that many people will like. Sashimi is a 'No Tool' recipe as well. Among bachelors, both Griffin and Cliff LOVE Sushi. Most of the older characters love it as well, including Galen, Hardy and Sebastian.

Raisin Bread
Bread
Wild Grape
N.B. Marlin loves Raisin Bread, and it is slightly less expensive than the Wine you have had to give him each day to boost his affection. Other characters who love Raisin Bread are Mary and Ruby.

Sashimi
Fish (M) or Fish (L)
N.B. Please note that you cannot use a Small Fish to make Sashimi. Sashimi' is one of the first items, apart from the Lithograph, that really excites Carter. Before you have a Kitchen, you will be limited to gifts of riceball or wine that only raise his AP and FP by +300AP +3 FP but with Sashimi, you can raise it by +500 +9 daily. Griffin loves Sashimi but he will be just as excited by a raw small fish, so Sashimi will not represent anything better in terms of courting him. He is one of the easiest bachelors to please. All the elders love sashimi as well.

Kate, Murrey love sashimi but the real plus here is that Takakura loves it. He is a difficult character in terms of gifts at the start of the game. Until you catch Big Fish, you will not have ANY gift that he will welcome. The advantage of Sashimi over Big Fish is that it can be made using a medium fish.

Ice Cream:
Milk
Egg
Optional: any fruit
N.B. Hugh, Chris and Van love Ice Cream and Lumina likes it.

This is not a comprehensive 'No Tool' Cooking Guide but it is comprehensive in terms of the dishes you can make if you order the Kitchen at the earliest possible day in the Summer of your First Year.

Some of the first 'cooked dishes' you can make have higher energy values than any other items you have been able to obtain, apart from the Medicines you can buy from Van.

Here are the Energy Values for the Recipes given above:

Salad: +20 SR -5 FR
Sandwich: +40 SR -5 FR (bread and tomato)
Fruit Sandwich: +40 SR -5 FR (bread and peach, same for bread and strawberry)
Pickled Turnip: +20 SR -4 FR
Pickled Cucumber: +20 SR -7 FR
Raisin Bread: +30 SR -4 FR
Sushi: +40 SR -1 FR
Sashimi: +30 SR -3 FR
Bamboo Rice: +30 SR -1 FR
Ice Cream: +30 SR -20 FR

Ice Cream actually is the best of these Cooked Recipes, if you suffer both from lack of Stamina and high Fatigue. If you add fruit to the basic Ice Cream recipe of 1 Milk and 1 Egg, you will raise the SR value even higher.