My Wonderful Summertime in Stardew Valley

Summer is on the way, so let’s take some time to discuss the season in Stardew Valley. It is a fun time of the year in the game. Some crops can be carried over to the fall, and the festivals are fun.

This is usually when I start getting my tools upgraded, planting fruit trees, and adding buildings to my farm. This isn’t my favorite season, but it is an enjoyable one. There were a number of quests, and I started making friends with the townsfolk.

Linus and Leah are my favorite people in Stardew Valley. I feel bad for them and like to see their stories unfold. This is also when I normally find the Mayor’s underwear in Marnie’s bedroom. Out of all the things in this game, I find that to be the funniest.

The Luau

This is a fun little event where everyone in town gets together to make soup on the beach. Another government official shows up to determine if the soup is good. Why do we care what he thinks? I’m not sure, but he has odd tastes.

There isn’t much to this event. All you have to do is toss an ingredient in the soup and have the governor taste it. For some time, I had no idea how to make this picky jerk happy. It was a bit of a mystery to me.

If you care enough to get the best outcome, you can find the correct ingredient to put in the soup. If you don’t, then you can skip the list I’m about to write:

• Cauliflower (Gold Quality)
• Melon (Gold Quality)
• Large Goat Milk (Silver)
• Goat Cheese (Silver or Gold)
• Goat Milk (Gold)
• Large Milk (Gold)
• Cheese (Gold)

This can be a little hard to get on the first attempt. There is a much longer list (found here) that includes a lot of types of wine. I’m sure someone has pulled this off on the first attempt.

I kept wondering what was in this soup. It sounds like it could be a huge disaster. Everyone put a random item into the soup and hoped it would work out.

It reminds me of a story I was told several times as a kid. This guy comes to town and asks for food. When no one gives him food, he sits in the middle of the town, builds a campfire, and starts boiling water.

When people ask him what he’s cooking, he tells them it is stone soup. To make the story short, he gets the town to contribute ingredients to make a pot of soup by tricking the townsfolk. It is a fun story, and the meaning was totally lost on me when I was little.

Out of all the events, this is my least favorite. It reinforces the themes of a community coming together, but it is short. Getting your favorite ending on the first try can also be hard.

Green Rain

This was a cool random event that happened during my playthrough. It was the first time I could remember it happening, and it was very cool to see. It made a moss grow on some trees and felt like the start of a plant-themed horror film.

Seeing this was very cool! I haven’t been keeping up with all the updates for the game, so this probably isn’t new to most people. Stuff like this is why I love indie games! You’ll get these free updates as the developer continues to improve their game.

As I play this game, I’ll find more things like this. It’s like opening a present. You’ll see something new if you haven’t played the game for a while. It is all part of the fun of playing and supporting an indie game.

Wine, Cheese, and Mayo

These are the three things that I tend to hoard while playing this game. It is like setting up an incredibly lucrative cottage industry. These also make great gifts for the townsfolk.

Once you get the coop and a barn, you can start making mayonnaise and cheese. Wine and preserves are easier to get because they don’t require additional buildings. Unless you’re like me and you put all this stuff into a shed. I don’t know why I do this; maybe I want to have everything organized.

You don’t need to do this right away, but it helps. In the winter, you can’t grow crops, so you don’t have much to do. Having animals and something as I described above can help with avoiding the crippling boredom of the winter season. Eventually, you’ll get a greenhouse, which will let you farm in the winter.

I’m getting a little ahead of myself. During the summer, it is fun to have the preserve jars, kegs, cheese presses, and mayonnaise machines. It gives you more money and adds to the tasks you can do during the day.

To go along with this, you can plant fruit trees. It gives you more options for jelly and wine. This is one of my favorite parts of the game. I just like having stuff like this.

Summer is Fun, but I like the Fall

This is a fun four-week period in the game. It is relaxing and colorful, and you start getting many things you’ll need for the winter. This isn’t my favorite part of the game.

Summer in Stardew Valley is bright and relaxing. It mirrors the summers I had as a kid where nothing mattered. All I had to do was play outside and occasionally try to beat a video game with my friends.

While I like this, I find the Fall season to be more fun. The colors are muted but pleasant in their ways. Everything is green in the summer, and the color pallet is varied in the fall. It brings up some lovely memories of wandering the woods and exploring places.

Wrap up

Summer is normally a lazy season. There is always something to do in Stardew Valley, where the town’s economy solely depends on your farm. The first summer can set you up for having something to do during the long, winter months.

Recently went back to play Harvest Moon on the SNES. I haven’t written about that experience yet, but it is very different from how I remember it. These two games are opposites.

Stardew Valley is considerably better than the first version of Harvest Moon. There is a long list of reasons for it, but most of them have to do with the time they were made. In the late 1990s, developers couldn’t do the same things as in the mid-2010s.

This is the second in an ongoing series. If you want to read about my spring in Stardew Valley, please check it out here (Link).