The Preserves Jar is a basic tool everyone can make shortly after setting up their farm. Build enough of them, and they’ll play a significant role in helping you meet your financial goals. If you’re here, it means you care about doing things efficiently. You know not every vegetable will give you the same yields, and you want to know the most profitable pickles. Well, my fellow pixel farmer, you’ve come to the right place. Bring me 50 wood, 40 stone, and 8 coal, and let’s start this pickling course!
5. Cauliflower
Pickled selling price: 400g If you want to start pickling and preserving ASAP after starting a new game, growing some cauliflower should be your top priority. The more valuable the starting crop, the higher the final selling price. Cauliflower can be sold for a premium of 175g – the highest of all Spring vegetables – making the initial investment of 80g per seed packet completely worth it. Moreover, cauliflower is one of the few vegetables in the game that can yield supersized produce if grown in a 9×9 pattern. This will always double and sometimes almost triple your harvest. Cauliflowers are delicious steamed or au gratin, which is how most people enjoy them. Still, you’d be surprised by how mouth-watering a crunchy pickled cauliflower can be.
4. Artichoke
Pickled selling price: 370g Next, we have the artichoke – a slightly less valuable but easier-to-grow vegetable. Artichokes are the bud of a specific thistle flower, and they’ll be ready to harvest in as little as eight days. That’s five fewer days than the cauliflower, so you’ll get to grow many more artichokes in a month – and they’ll be ready to start pickling much faster. The problem with the artichoke is how hard it is to get the seeds at first. Unlike the cauliflower, the seeds aren’t available at Pierre’s until the second year. The only way to get them earlier is to get lucky by growing Mixed Seeds in the Fall, then putting the lucky artichoke in the Seed Maker. That said, Pierre sells them for dirt cheap once he does get them. At 30g a piece, it’s a steal.
3. Red Cabbage
Pickled selling price: 585g A healthy diet includes plenty of cruciferous vegetables and abundant color variety. The noble red cabbage helps you cover both areas in one go. It’s also one of the most popular vegetables for pickling, with firm roots all over Europe and Asia. Some famous examples include German Sauerkraut and Korean Kimchi. In Stardew Valley, you’ll benefit from its sky-high selling price, which makes it the most profitable crop to pickle in the Summer. The premium price comes with a catch: its seeds are even harder to get than the artichoke’s. Until Pierre gets them in year 2, you’ll have to keep an eye on the Traveling Cart’s wares.
2. Eggplant
Pickled selling price: 170g Crops that re-grow after the first harvest make a killer combo with the Preserves Jar. The eggplant is the most profitable thanks to its relatively high selling price and short growth cycle. You can harvest an eggplant from your bush every five days, meaning you can get five eggplants from a single seed packet throughout the season. At 60g per seed bag, it’s a foolproof investment – and a great alternative to artichokes in the Fall. Pickled eggplant is a popular staple in cuisines as diverse as Italian and Vietnamese. It’s delicious with some olive oil!
1. Pumpkin
Pickled selling price: 690g The number one spot as the most profitable vegetable to pickle goes to the pumpkin. And it’s not even close! Pickled Pumpkins sell for a whole 85g more than the runner-up – Pickled Red Cabbage. Getting the seeds is also as easy as walking to Pierre’s during the Fall. It’s a bummer that you can only harvest two pumpkins per season due to their slow growth cycle of 13 days. Still, make sure you grow them in a nice 9×9 pattern, and you might get blessed with a giant pumpkin. The seeds are expensive at 100g, but it’s worth it – especially if you keep some for the Seed Maker.
