This guide is intended as to aid those who are interested in taking up farming. In order to farm, you need the Agriculture skill. Farming is AP intensive to start up, and requires effort put in to guarantee a good harvest, but ultimately pays off.
To start[]
Starting farming requires a digging stick and a blank meadow tile. Then you create a field for 30 AP. You can not build a field on anything but meadow. Digging a field leaves the area brown on the map. A field can be dug any time of year, and provides 10 HXP. If you dig a field in summer, autumn, or winter, you won’t be able to do much with the field, but it will still be available for the following spring. Unused fields revert to meadow after a year and can be rebuilt.
During spring you can plant in the field. To sow a field, you need 10 wheat, 15AP and a field. When you plant the field, you will get a message, and anyone wandering through will notice the field has been planted. Planting the field gives you 5 hXP. For the rest of spring, the tile will remain brown. In summer, planted fields will turn light green, before turning bright yellow in autumn.
Important: Without a source of water nearby it will be impossible to have good harvest. If your home is far away from water, you shouldn't take up agriculture unless you are willing to travel every day during spring and summer to obtain water. This also means you'll need a pot for each field to avoid multiple trips to the water. You should carry up to 7 filled pots if you are carrying nothing else.
Any farming location must have water nearby. As a general rule, one person can maintain 4 fields if water is close, and even double that if there is planting and harvesting help available.
Taking care of business[]
Once planted, wheat will need regular watering. To do this, you will need a clay pot full of water. A clay pot is filled by going to a body of water and clicking the “fill” option. Filled clay pots add rapidly to encumbrance (weight of 10), leaving little space for other things. This makes it quite possible that a person dedicated to watering may be dependent on others for food.
Once you have a clay pot full of water, you need to use it with a field. Once a day (midnight GMT) the option to water the field will come up. When such happens, you can go to the field and select “Water”, which will empty the contents of the pot onto the field. The pot does not vanish and remains in your inventory. Watering the field grants the message that “You pour water on the field, you can almost hear the wheat growing” and provides 1 hXP. While the agriculture skill is required both to plant and harvest, those without agriculture can still water the fields.
Note: your crops should be planted the first day of spring as this allows for maximum watering opportunities. You can water only during the spring and summer, not autumn. Each day you do not water will decrease your total harvest, so make sure to water daily.
Reaping what you sow[]
In autumn, your fields will be a cheerful yellow color, ready for harvesting. You can pick wheat with your bare hands, for a cost of 16 AP per 10 wheat. If you have a stone sickle your AP cost is cut to 8.
If you take care of your field well enough, you should see a decent amount of wheat, up to about 69 per field, enough to feed 3 people and still have enough to plant another field the following season. With a good harvest, you can accumulate wheat and not have to worry about hunting or foraging for food, freeing up time for other skills.
Conclusion[]
Farming is an important decision to make. If you have the needed materials and a good location, you can have a good supply of food for the winter. Lacking this supply, it is just a waste of good food and AP to farm. If the location is not right, you should probably not take up farming. The good news for those of you who do is that wheat can be eaten as is, or made into flour as wheat rots at a rate of up to 10% per day (estimated). Once your village is large enough to have a kiln and a bakery wheat can be milled and ground into flour, then baked. This will require a good supply of pots as well as help to make the pots and do the milling. There are several advantages to this as flour never rots and 4 wheat can become 10 flatbreads -- or 15 pie slices if you add three huckleberries.
One last thing to remember: Make sure you set aside 16-20 wheat per field to plant the following year. This larger number allows for the loss of some seed wheat due to rotting over the winter.