New player looking for tips regarding: Early-game Food

[Dilan Rona]

On 3/25/2026 at 9:17 PM, Zane Mordien said:

This is one of the biggest mistakes I think people are making

What you call a mistake is a deliberate decision by others. Even when I got space in my inven, I leave them to ripen. Since the first 2 months is for exploring, and gathering enough copper and tin (after marking possible locations to dig later), I just collect the crops later, and I get the full benifit

Besides, if a sow has piglets, I've found that a sow will chase me all the way back to that pit trap. And the piglets generally follow the sow, and gets trapped as well.

[Zane Mordien]

13 hours ago, Dilan Rona said:

What you call a mistake is a deliberate decision by others. Even when I got space in my inven, I leave them to ripen. Since the first 2 months is for exploring, and gathering enough copper and tin (after marking possible locations to dig later), I just collect the crops later, and I get the full benifit

For you it is a conscious decision based on your playstyle. For a new player that thinks the crop will ripen anytime soon it is a mistake. Even in 2 months how many wild crops can be harvested when they start off 2 of 9 for grains? Turnips would have already given you a harvest in the same 2 month time period if you planted them immedately. 

 

Our playstyles are probably vastly different though, becuase after 2 months I'm usually making iron in 1.21 and before. My exploration is limited to what I need to get copper, make some type of bronze, get some iron going, while harvesting and planting crops. I usually don't ever mine anything but surface copper and tin I buy from a trader 50% of the time. 

That's just my way though, and I'm sure plenty of people love to get lots of copper and bronze while enjoying the gameplay. 

 

13 hours ago, Dilan Rona said:

Besides, if a sow has piglets, I've found that a sow will chase me all the way back to that pit trap. And the piglets generally follow the sow, and gets trapped as well.

I think you're missing the quote for someone else on this one, since my posts don't talk about this. Although I will say for the pigs and chickens I do not use a pit trap. I create a fenced in area and put dirt stairs up over the fence so the piggy will follow me in and then I have a dirt block inside that I use to jump out. Saves me the trouble of trying to get the pigs back out of the pit trap. 

[Ratbatboo]

Am I misremembering, or don't wild crops which are loaded 'cycle'? I.e., if you find one at stage 2, it'll grow to its final form and then the next time it gets a growth tick it'll shift back to stage 1? So 'returning to them when they're ripe' is fraught by timing issues, because if you're too late they're 'unripe' all over again?

[williams_482]

On 3/28/2026 at 5:40 PM, Ratbatboo said:

Am I misremembering, or don't wild crops which are loaded 'cycle'? I.e., if you find one at stage 2, it'll grow to its final form and then the next time it gets a growth tick it'll shift back to stage 1? So 'returning to them when they're ripe' is fraught by timing issues, because if you're too late they're 'unripe' all over again?

This is true, but their growth speed is so slow that it takes a long time for any currently ripe crops to revert to stage one. It does happen, though, and I've actually seen a crop revert before my eyes as I was about to harvest it. 

[Grummsh]

is it true? I thought the wild crops that spawn during the world gen dont actually progress in the grow cycle at all - so its best to just pick them up immidiately or mark and come back later if you dont have bag space.

[williams_482]

On 3/30/2026 at 12:31 PM, Grummsh said:

is it true? I thought the wild crops that spawn during the world gen dont actually progress in the grow cycle at all - so its best to just pick them up immidiately or mark and come back later if you dont have bag space.

Wild crops do progress. Next game deliberately leave one or two near your base and check their progress every couple months. 

It is still best to just pick them immediately though. The seeds you get from breaking immature flax will grow to maturity on your farm long before the wild crops would have matured, and also produce far more flax fibers and grain than the mature wild crops would have.