There are a lot of ways to make money and take profit in the game. But the best way to take profit in Stardew Valley is always hampered by a lot of factors. Stardew Valley isn’t just your ordinary RPG. I mean, in way, it kinda is. You’re gonna be grinding a lot of stuff in order to level up and grind even more stuff.

Have the money to unlock the Desert on the 11th (so you can do your first Skull Cavern dive, with a gold pick on the 12th). To actually achieve bottom of the mines and to get the money to both get upgrades and unlock the desert requires you to have multiple rain fishing days AND to catch The Legend fish. 4 out of the 5 skills (all except combat) are a realistic way of earning gold in the early game. If you're investing in crops, you should buy mostly Potatoes because they're the most efficient in terms of profit per day of growth. Foraging is a free (in terms of energy cost) source of gold, so you should do it.

October 25th, 2018

Yes, I know, this isn’t what Stardew Valley is about, but after 200 hours it’s nice to help beef-up my wallet a bit so that next House Expansion won’t put me in the Barn. This guide mean to help players get some extra cash in their wallet with a cursory glance at which crops might be a good idea to keep around if anyone is wanting to lightly min-max some crops to make their lives easier.

Update from Hrothmar: I’ve moved credits/insights/disclaimers to the bottom of this post, to get information into your hands faster, If you’re interested in learning more about how I found these numbers, you can find them at the end of the article. Without further delay, let’s jump right into crop profits.

Spring

#1 Strawberries

650 gold profit per crop. Obtained during Egg Festival (Spring 13th), but even with this late start, if you plant Strawberries after the Egg Festival ends at 10pm you’ll be able to grow the plant fully in 8 days and get 2 harvests worth out of the plant before Summer 1, netting you a 200 gold profit per seed purchased.

#2 Green Beans

240 gold profit per crop. Green Beans are wonderful for first year farmers to start making money and they’re a great introduction to how much of a pain in the but planning around Trellis crops are. Since they’re also used to unlock the Spring Crops Bundle I recommend planting a bunch of them.

#3 Rhubarb

175 gold profit per crop. Purchased from the Oasis shop (requires Desert access), meaning this will not be accessible to any first year farmers.

#4 Cauliflower

138 gold profit per crop. With their longer harvest time but high return rate, Cauliflower is still a great staple for your farm considering you need them to unlock your Spring Crops Bundle.

#5 Potato

~75 gold profit per crop. Potatoes are amazing first-year crops. They have a 25% chance to spawn a second potato on harvest and with a growth period of only 6 days you’re able to get 4 harvests completed before Summer 1.

Low Key MVP: Parsnips

While they have a low per-crop profit, Parsnips are the best money maker if you have the Energy to till/water them then turn around and plant more, since their ROI scales harder than any other Spring crop. There’s a detailed analysis on this which can be found at the bottom of this article for additional context. Also, they’re an amazing vegetable IRL, try roasting them.

Summer

A brief note about Summer, the “top 5” most profitable crops are inaccessible to Year 1 players, so I’ve extended it to the “Top 6” to be inclusive.

#1 Blueberry

668 gold profit per crop. This is the best multi-harvest crop of the summer without processing and the most profitable crop for Year 1 players. Each harvest of a Blueberry bush has a 100% chance of yielding two additional berries (3 per plant), so even though they only sell for ~62g each, you’ll harvest 12 per plant in a season at only 80g per plant.

#2 Starfruit

537 gold profit per crop. Purchased from the Oasis shop (requires Desert access), meaning this will not be accessible to any Year 1 player. While Starfruit is the highest raw crop value, it takes a backseat to Hops when processed by a keg.

#3 Hops

467 gold profit per crop. I’ll make a more in-depth post about crop processing in the future, but it should be worth noting that across all seasons and all crops the lowly Hop fermented in a Keg (creating Pale Ale) is the most profitable crop possible. It also has a regrow rate of 1 day, meaning you’ll get new Hops every-other-day for a steady income.

#4 Hot Pepper

360 gold profit per crop. While they have a lower overall profit margin compared to other multi-harvest crops, the Hot Pepper’s three-day regrow rate makes it a great source of consistent income without needing a trellis like Hops, meaning you can plant more in a smaller amount of space.

#5 Melon

232 gold profit per crop. Melons are good and required for the Spring Crops Bundle, so be sure to pick them up.

#6 Red Cabbage

225 gold profit per crop. Purchased from the Oasis shop (requires Desert access), meaning this will not be accessible to any Year 1 player. Worth a hefty amount, be sure to keep one on hand since it is needed for the Dye Bundle on the Bulletin Board.

Fall

Fall is similar to Summer in that, the “top 5” most profitable crops are pretty inaccessible to Year 1 players.

#1 Sweet Gem Berry

2,750 profit per crop. Purchased at Traveling Cart for 1,000 gold each, they’re difficult to save up the initial funds for. Be sure to keep one Sweet Gem Berry to give to the Old Master Cannoli statue in the Secret Woods for a Stardrop reward to increase your max energy.

#2 Cranberry

693 profit per crop. Cranberries have a 100% chance of dropping multiple crops on harvest and they’re worth the most unprocessed out of all Fall crops (I’m considering Sweet Gem Berries a bit of an outlier because of their difficult upfront cost required for purchasing seeds). Hold onto a handful to process with a Preserves Jar during Winter to keep incoming rolling alongside Hops Kegs.

#3 Grape

540 profit per crop. Due to requiring a trellis and their lower profit margin, be sure to plant more Cranberries compared to Grapes if possible, however, Cranberry seeds are four times more expensive, it’s still a good idea to plant Grapes early on.

#4 Pumpkin

300 profit per crop. Keep one on hand because, towards the end of Fall, Carolyn will request a pumpkin to carve into a Jack-o-Lantern for Abigail.

#5 Artichoke

170 profit per crop. An overall weaker plant, it doesn’t have any strong arguments for planting it. There are stronger choices in the Fall for Raw Crop, Preserve Jars, and Kegs. It is not a requirement for any Bundle. No villager “loves” Artichoke. Its sole benefit is that it is an ingredient in some cooking and relatively cheap.

Multi-seasonal crops

There are no crops which grow in Winter, so I also wanted to highlight crops can grow throughout multiple seasons straight.

Ancient Fruit

4,698 gold profit per crop. If you are able to plant an Ancient Fruit on Spring 1, it will grow for 28 days, then begin reproducing Ancient Fruits every 7 days for three seasons until Fall 28, giving you 8 total harvests and fat stacks of gold.

Coffee Bean

(-1,235) to 1,265 profit per crop. Coffee is a hard crop to calculate the value for. The profit linked at the top of this post will often show Coffee as being a negative profit most of the time. One coffee plant yields 4(+) coffee beans every 2 days, which can then be planted and grown into additional coffee plants. It gets out of hand quickly and you can fill your entire greenhouse with fully grown coffee plants from a single seed in approximately 20 days. Most of the time it’s calculated negatively because the only way to purchase a Coffee Bean is to buy it from the Traveling cart for 2,500g (25% chance) or 100-1000g (1.26% chance). Personally, I get my first Coffee Bean by killing Dust Sprites in the mines (levels 40-79) since they have a ~2% chance of dropping one and they spawn in large numbers. Even if you pay for the first Coffee Bean, their rapid regrowth rate still make it profitable to purchase one, but you’ll need to spread them quickly and process them in a Keg in order to turn a profit.

Corn

Stardew Valley Early Money Making

535 gold profit per crop. Corn is the first multi-seasonal crop most players will encounter. If you plant it on Summer 1 and keep

Stardew Valley Earning Money Early Game