Winter is the fourth season in Stardew Valley, and much like real life it’s punctuated by difficulties for farmers. Ordinary crops will not grow and as a result of this, the requirements of upkeep on a player diminish significantly. Thus it is an ideal time to engage in other activities, namely collecting some sort of bank of resources and money to fund building upgrades. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, however it’s worth noting that farming isn’t completely off the menu in Winter. Judicious use of the foraging skill will allow you to keep those crops coming, even through the snow covered dreamland that is Winter in the valley.
Winter Foragables
It’s first worth noting that the items found during winter are very different. Along with the ability to find a Nautilus Shell at The Beach, there are only five items that can be found through regular foraging during this season, which are as follows:
- Winter Root
- Snow Yam
- Crystal Fruit
- Crocus
- Holly
Outside of the Holly, each of these items are required for the Winter Foraging Bundle, the completion of which will give you Winter Seeds, allowing you to plant a crop through the snowy season. Not only is this a great way to get said seeds, but in the process of aiming for this bundle, you will no doubt gather a great deal of each foragable. At level 7 of Foraging, you’ll be able to combine the Winter Root, Snow Yam, Crystal Fruit and Crocus to make 10 x Winter Seeds yourself. This, combined with the reward of 30 seeds from the bundle, will allow you to plant a bumper crop through the winter period!
Holly – What Is It For?
During the process of foraging during the winter season, you’re likely to gather quite a bit of Holly, and it’s not immediately apparent exactly what should be done with it. In fact, it’s one of the most limiting items in Stardew Valley as a whole, because it’s uses extend only to the following:
- Possibly included in the Remixed Winter Foraging Bundle, should you choose to remix your bundles at the start of the game.
- Liked as a gift by Linus, Leah and Harvey.
As you can see, there isn’t a great deal of use for Holly at all. Even the gifting options are simply a ‘like’ rather than a ‘love’. That said, our favourite thing to do with Holly is to simply sell it off for gold! It’s another way to make a decent amount of money during the winter period, and higher quality pieces of Holly will fetch over 100g each, so it’s certainly worth selling them whenever you can.
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Making Money In Winter
The real money spinner in winter, outside of the small profits from Foraging itself detailed above, is to make full and proper use of the Winter Seeds that you’ll obtain. Outside of Fiber Seeds, which do not produce a sellable crop, these are the only seeds that you can plant and grow during the winter period, and taking full advantage of this can produce quite the profit.
By planting these seeds, and indeed watering them daily for the next 7 days total, you will produce a crop of the 4 main foragables detailed above, being Winter Root, Snow Yam, Crystal Fruit and Crocus. You’ll note then, that by crafting Winter Seeds using one of each of these, you’ll be able to produce 10 seeds, and use the process to plant more whilst selling the excess crop!
All of this is especially good in the first year of Stardew Valley, where it can often feel like your income slows down to a crawl in the winter period. This, along with the additional time you have to chop trees, fight enemies and generally gather resources, means you can actually start to look forward to the snowy whites of this particular season, rather than dreading it.
Winter Seed Money Making Steps
- Forage the 4 main Winter Foragables (Winter Root, Snow Yam, Crystal Fruit & Crocus).
- (Optional) Complete the Winter Foraging Bundle to receive 30 x Winter Seeds.
- Craft Winter Seeds (Level 7 Foraging Recipe).
- Plant Winter Seeds.
- Water them for 7 days.
- Harvest a large amount of crops.
- Craft more Winter Seeds using the crops, sell the excess and repeat!
- Enjoy a profitable winter!
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