Last updated: 4 July 2026

Stardew Valley Artisan Goods Guide — Every Machine, Formula & Profit Strategy

The Stardew Valley artisan goods system is the engine behind every high-income farm. Drop the right crop into the right machine — a Keg, a Preserves Jar, the Cheese Press, the Oil Maker, the Loom, the Mayonnaise Machine, or the Dehydrator — and watch its sell price multiply. Layer on the Artisan profession's 40% bonus, then wheel out the casks to age your best wines, and a single greenhouse becomes a machine that prints tens of thousands of gold per week. This guide explains exactly how each machine's pricing formula works, which crops give the best return per cycle, when to use a Keg versus a Jar, and how to build the production scale that makes the endgame feel effortless.

01The Artisan Profession: The Foundation of Every Artisan Operation

Before touching a single machine, you need to understand the Artisan profession — because every number in this guide changes by 40% depending on whether you have it. Artisan is a level-10 Farming profession gated behind Tiller at level 5. When you reach Farming level 5, choose Tiller (crops sell for 10% more). When you hit level 10, choose Artisan: all goods produced in artisan machines sell for 40% more. That bonus covers Wine, Juice, Jelly, Pickles, Cheese, Mayo, Cloth, Truffle Oil, Mead, Pale Ale, and virtually every other machine output.

The alternative at level 10 is Agriculturist (all crops grow 10% faster). In theory, faster crops mean more input for your machines. In practice, the 40% output bonus on processed goods dwarfs the 10% throughput gain from Agriculturist — especially at scale, where you are processing the same number of crops per harvest regardless of grow speed. The only reason to pick Agriculturist is on a raw-crop selling farm with zero processing, which is not a strategy this guide covers.

Pick Artisan as early as possible. The path is: Farming level 5 → Tiller → keep farming until level 10 → Artisan. You can respec at any time using the Statue of Uncertainty in the Sewers (10,000g per skill respec, unlocked by donating 60 museum items for the Rusty Key from Gunther). But there is no reason to delay: once you have even a handful of kegs running, the 40% jump pays for the Statue in a single batch of wine.

02The Keg: Multiplying Every Fruit and Vegetable

The Keg is the highest-value processor for most crops. Its recipe unlocks at Farming level 8 and requires 30 Wood, 1 Copper Bar, 1 Iron Bar, and 1 Oak Resin. Oak Resin is the real bottleneck — each Keg consumes one, so place Tappers on every Oak Tree you can find in the Cindersap Forest early in Year 1 and stockpile resin well before level 8 arrives.

• Fruit → Wine: sell price = 3× the fruit's base price. Processing takes 7 in-game days.
• Vegetable → Juice: sell price = 2.25× the vegetable's base price. Processing takes 7 in-game days.
• Hops → Pale Ale: fixed 300g output, processes in roughly 2 days. Hops is a Summer crop that regrows every day, so a small hops patch can cycle faster than wine kegs — useful for consistent mid-season cashflow.
• Wheat → Beer: fixed 200g output, roughly 2 days. Less valuable than Pale Ale but Wheat is cheap and grows quickly in both Summer and Fall.
• Honey → Mead: fixed 200g output, about 10 in-game hours. A fast turnaround for beehive operations.
• Coffee Beans → Coffee: fixed 150g output, about 2 in-game hours. Coffee's real value is the in-game speed buff it grants the player rather than direct income.
• Tea Leaves → Green Tea: fixed 100g output, about 3 in-game hours. A small passive bonus from Tea Bushes planted along paths or fences.

The 7-day Wine and Juice cycle means each Keg produces exactly once per in-game week on a full rotation. If your input crop regrows on the same 7-day schedule — as Ancient Fruit does — you can keep kegs permanently loaded: harvest crops, refill kegs, and sell the previous batch all on the same morning.

03The Preserves Jar: Fast Cycles and the Flat Bonus

The Preserves Jar unlocks at Farming level 4 and costs just 50 Wood, 40 Stone, and 8 Coal — far cheaper than a Keg and available years before the Keg recipe appears. Its pricing formula is: (2 × base crop price) + 50g. That flat +50g addition is what makes the Jar disproportionately valuable for low-priced crops.

• Fruit → Jelly: sell price = (2× base + 50g). Processing takes roughly 4 in-game days.
• Vegetable → Pickles: same formula. Also about 4 days.
• Roe → Aged Roe: same formula applied to the Roe's base sell price. Sturgeon Roe (200g base) becomes Aged Roe worth 450g — among the best passive income options from a fish pond.

The 4-day cycle means the Jar completes two batches in the same time a Keg finishes one. For lower-base-value crops, the flat +50g also generates a surprisingly large multiplier: a Parsnip (35g base) becomes 120g Pickled Parsnip — a 3.4× ratio that comfortably beats the Keg's 2.25× Juice output for that crop.

04Keg vs. Jar: Choosing the Right Machine per Crop

The right choice depends on crop type and base price. The pricing formulas expose two clear break-even points:

• For FRUITS (Keg = 3× base): Keg Wine beats Jar Jelly for any fruit with a base price above 50g. Since the Jar formula is (2× base + 50), the Keg pulls ahead at 3× base > 2× base + 50 → base > 50g. Almost every fruit in the game exceeds that threshold: Strawberry (120g), Melon (250g), Ancient Fruit (550g), Starfruit (750g) all belong in a Keg.
• For VEGETABLES (Keg = 2.25× base): Pickles formula (2× base + 50) beats Juice at 2.25× base when base < 200g. That covers nearly every vegetable: Parsnip, Potato, Cauliflower, Tomato, Corn, Cranberry, Yam, Red Cabbage, Eggplant. Only a handful of high-priced vegetables like Pumpkin (320g) or Artichoke (160g, marginal) get more from the Keg.
• The time factor: Even when the Keg wins per batch, the Jar's shorter 4-day cycle means more batches per season. If your kegs are fully loaded with premium crops and you have leftover produce, routing that overflow through Jars keeps your income stream active rather than leaving crops sitting in a chest.

A practical rule for most farms: put your highest-value fruits — Ancient Fruit, Starfruit, Melon, Strawberry — into Kegs. Run Preserves Jars on all cheap vegetables and any fruit surplus your kegs cannot absorb. A Jar churning out 120g Pickled Parsnip beats an idle Jar every time.

05Top Crops for Artisan ROI

All sell prices below include the Artisan profession's 40% bonus. Divide by 1.4 for the base price without that profession.

• Ancient Fruit Wine — 2,310g per bottle (550g base × 3 × 1.4). Ancient Fruit takes 28 days to first harvest, then regrows every 7 days and produces across all seasons inside the Greenhouse. One plant yields one bottle per week indefinitely. A Greenhouse fully planted with 114 Ancient Fruit generates approximately 263,340g in wine revenue every week at full keg capacity. No other crop matches the combination of high yield, no replanting, and continuous seasonal output — Ancient Fruit Wine is the best artisan-goods income source in the game.
• Starfruit Wine — 3,150g per bottle (750g base × 3 × 1.4). Starfruit has the highest per-bottle value of any wine. The downside is a 13-day grow time with no regrowth (must replant every cycle), and it is only available in Summer outside the Greenhouse. For players running limited Greenhouse space or seasonal outdoor crops, Starfruit maximises per-transaction income and is worth prioritising.
• Melon Wine — 1,050g per bottle (250g base × 3 × 1.4). Melon is the strongest Summer alternative for players still building toward Greenhouse access. Seeds cost 80g from Pierre, the grow time is 12 days, and the wine output is solid.
• Strawberry Wine — 504g per bottle (120g base × 3 × 1.4). Strawberries (Spring, from the Egg Festival) regrow every 4 days. That faster regrow rate means one strawberry patch can supply multiple kegs per season, making it a strong early-game wine crop before Ancient Fruit is available.
• Pumpkin Juice — 1,008g per bottle (320g base × 2.25 × 1.4). Pumpkin is a Fall vegetable that crosses the 200g vegetable break-even for the Keg. It is a single-harvest crop (no regrow), but it grows fast (19 days) and the juice value is excellent for a non-Greenhouse seasonal.
• Cranberry Pickles — 280g per jar ((2 × 75 + 50) × 1.4). Cranberry (75g base) is a Fall vegetable. The Keg gives only (75 × 2.25 × 1.4 =) 236g Juice — the Jar's flat bonus makes pickles worth 280g. Always route cranberries through the Preserves Jar.
• Blueberry Jelly — 210g per jar ((2 × 50 + 50) × 1.4). Blueberry (50g base) is interesting: the Keg produces exactly the same 210g as the Jar (3× = 2× + 50 at the 50g break-even). Blueberries grow three per harvest, so the bulk throughput advantage of the Dehydrator (see below) makes them a strong candidate for that machine instead.

06The Animal Machine Trio: Mayo, Cheese, and Cloth

Three machines process animal products instead of crops. Their outputs are not formula-based on input price in the same way as Kegs or Jars — each machine has a fixed output per input type — but the Artisan profession still applies its 40% bonus to every result.

• Mayonnaise Machine: Accepts all egg types. Regular Chicken Egg → Mayo (190g → 266g with Artisan). Large Egg → Gold Mayo (285g → 399g). Duck Egg → Duck Mayo (375g → 525g). Void Egg → Void Mayo (275g → 385g). Dinosaur Egg → Dino Mayo (800g → 1,120g — among the highest per-item outputs in the game). Processing takes a few in-game hours per batch.
• Cheese Press: Accepts cow and goat milk. Regular Cow Milk → Cheese (230g → 322g with Artisan). Large Cow Milk → Gold-quality Cheese (345g → 483g). Goat Milk → Goat Cheese (375g → 525g). Large Goat Milk → Gold Goat Cheese (562g → 787g). Each batch processes in 3–4 in-game hours.
• Loom: Wool from Sheep → Cloth (470g → 658g with Artisan). Processing is fast. A full Barn of Sheep with high friendship generates cloth for sale or for the Tailoring table at Emily's.

For animal-focused farms, the Rancher → Shepherd profession path (Rancher at level 5 instead of Tiller) raises raw animal-product sell prices by 20% and speeds up wool and friendship timers at level 10. However, the Rancher bonus applies only to raw products sold directly, not to machine outputs. If you are processing animal goods through any machine, Tiller → Artisan remains the stronger long-term choice — the 40% machine bonus consistently outperforms the 20% raw-product bonus once throughput is established.

07Oil Maker and the Dehydrator (Patch 1.6)

Oil Maker: Processes Truffles, Sunflowers, and Sunflower Seeds. The standout output is Truffle Oil: 1,065g base, rising to 1,491g with Artisan. Truffles are foraged daily by Pigs once they reach high friendship levels. A large Pig Barn — especially combined with the Gatherer → Botanist Foraging professions to ensure every truffle is iridium quality — can feed a cluster of Oil Makers and generate significant passive daily income. Sunflower Oil (100g, 140g with Artisan) is much less valuable but still worth processing over raw sunflowers.

Dehydrator (added in patch 1.6): The Dehydrator produces Dried Fruit, Dried Mushrooms, and Raisins (from Grapes). Unlike Kegs or Jars, it requires 5 identical items per batch but completes in just one in-game day. The output sell price follows the formula: (7.5 × single-item base price) + 25g for the batch of five:

• 5 Common Mushrooms (40g each) → Dried Mushrooms worth 325g in 1 day — far better than routing mushrooms through a 4-day Preserves Jar cycle.
• 5 Blueberries (50g each) → Dried Fruit worth 400g in 1 day, versus 210g jelly (Jar, 4 days) or 210g wine (Keg, 7 days). The Dehydrator wins decisively for bulk blueberry processing.
• 5 Ancient Fruits (550g each) → Dried Fruit worth 4,150g in 1 day, versus 1,650g wine per individual fruit in a Keg over 7 days — though 5 Kegs running in parallel still yield 8,250g for the same 5 fruits over that same week.

The Dehydrator excels for mushrooms (which Kegs cannot process), Grapes (for Raisins), and any bulk low-to-mid-value fruit where your keg count falls short of your crop production. On Ginger Island — where crops grow in all four seasons and you can plant a second large fruit operation away from the main farm — placing rows of Dehydrators alongside the growing plots offers high throughput without the Oak Resin cost of additional Kegs.

08Cask Aging in the Cellar

The Cellar becomes available after Robin completes the third farmhouse upgrade — the most expensive renovation she offers. The Cellar arrives pre-loaded with 33 Casks and has room for up to 125 casks while keeping navigable paths, or up to 189 casks if every tile is packed. Casks age artisan goods through four quality tiers: Silver (1.25×), Gold (1.5×), and Iridium (2×) the item's base sell price.

Wine takes the longest to age: roughly 56 in-game days (two full seasons) to progress from normal to Iridium quality. Other artisan goods age faster — Cheese and Mead reach Iridium in about 14 days, Beer in about 24 days, Pale Ale in about 17 days. Only Wine, Beer, Mead, Pale Ale, Cheese, Jelly, Pickles, and Juice can be placed in Casks.

The two top cask candidates are the two premium wines:

• Starfruit Wine: normal quality 2,250g (no Artisan) or 3,150g (with Artisan). Aged to Iridium: 4,500g without Artisan, or 6,300g with Artisan. Each fully-aged cask of Starfruit Wine with Artisan adds 3,150g of value over the already-high base price.
• Ancient Fruit Wine: normal quality 1,650g or 2,310g (with Artisan). Aged to Iridium: 3,300g without Artisan, or 4,620g with Artisan. The consistent 7-day Ancient Fruit supply means you can funnel a fresh batch of wine into the casks every week, compounding earnings steadily across the full season.

The central trade-off with casks is time versus liquidity. A bottle locked in a cask for 56 days earns more in the end but cannot be sold during that window. For players in later years with a stable income, filling all 125+ casks with Wine and letting them age for two seasons is straightforwardly the correct decision. For players still scaling up and needing gold for buildings or seeds, selling normal-quality wine immediately and aging only the 33 default casks is a solid middle ground.

09Scaling Up: Building Your Artisan Empire

A single Keg is a curiosity. Ten is a noticeable income bump. Fifty marks the transition from farming to industry. Here is how to think about scale:

• Match your Keg count to your crop supply. If you harvest 114 Ancient Fruits every 7 days, you need 114 Kegs running in parallel to process every fruit the day you pick it. Fewer kegs means excess fruit piling up; more kegs means idle machines waiting on supply. The greenhouse-to-kegs ratio is the single most important number to optimise.
• Store machines in Sheds. A regular Shed holds up to 67 Kegs in an optimal layout while keeping room to walk. Upgrading to a Big Shed (Robin: 2,000g + 550 Wood + 300 Stone) fits 137 Kegs in the same footprint. Two Big Sheds = 274 Kegs — enough to handle a full Ancient Fruit Greenhouse plus seasonal outdoor crops at the same time.
• Tap Oak Trees from Year 1, Spring. Each Keg requires 1 Oak Resin. Building 100 Kegs requires 100 resin. Place Tappers on every Oak Tree you can find in the Cindersap Forest as early as possible so you have a large stockpile waiting when Farming level 8 arrives.
• Use the Greenhouse for year-round production. The Greenhouse (unlocked via the Community Center Pantry bundles) holds 114 crop slots with six Iridium Sprinklers handling all watering. Plant all 114 with Ancient Fruit — seeds drop rarely from the Traveling Cart or start from a single Ancient Seed artifact — and the plants fruit every 7 days across every season indefinitely. At Artisan prices, 114 bottles of Ancient Fruit Wine per week equal roughly 263,340g in weekly revenue.
• Extend production to Ginger Island. The Ginger Island farm provides a second growing area with its own perpetual season. A dedicated Ginger Island plantation of Starfruit or additional Ancient Fruit, fed into Dehydrators or a separate Keg Shed on the island, dramatically raises the ceiling beyond what the main farm alone can produce.

The classic endgame artisan setup is: Greenhouse with 114 Ancient Fruit → two Big Sheds of 100+ Kegs → 100+ Casks in the Cellar → Artisan profession active. That combination produces wine income in the hundreds of thousands of gold per week, funds any remaining purchases in a matter of days, and leaves the main challenge not as how to earn gold but as how to spend it.