How did YOU start YOUR farm off?

[TalimsSister]

What did you do first? What did you to make money at first and how long did it take you to switch from that to farming? Do you use the sprites, or no, and either way, what are your farming methods?

[harunosakura]

I started a new game recently and it's late spring of year one. I've been foraging around and growing crops to make money for a barn. Also, I've been smashing stones so I don't have to pay for material stone either.

[Kam]

I make most of my money early in the game by digging up jewelry and selling it to Van.

[volley07]

Usually I plant the starter crop, then start to clear all the fields in the Valley. I store the wood and start to build a stone fence around my field, and ship all the weeds I pick up. I sell my grasses and flowers to Van once a week, which brings in a fairly decent profit. About two weeks in, I start to excavate the mine about two times a week. I always try to keep the fields clear, and after I have enough money, I get a lumber and stone shed so I have more room in my rucksack and then start an orchard with trees from all three seasons. After that, I work on my livestock, and I plant a pasture for them. Overall, this takes about a year, but it's quite efficient.

[bluemuffin]

Grew a few turnips, mined a whole bunch everyday, sold it to Van when he was there. With that money I bought lots of Bodigizers and went to the second mine thingy and got the jems and stuff.
With that money, I used it to buy coops and barns and such

[nakayliahen]

I WALKED OUTSIDE
/SHOT

[NFamer]

Wanna know how I started my farm off? It's a simple formula really. Turnips. Nothin' but turnips. Spring's definite money-maker. Then you move into selling Tomatoes and Onions. Corn is good too. Then Fall, yams, yams and more yams. Eggplants are good too, but yams are recommended. It's fall and I still don't have a single coop or barn, but I do have a lot of money. /nods

[TalimsSister]

Thank you everyone for your replies so far. Valley07, when you say excavate, do you mean dig up jewelry, or do you mean the second mine with the diamonds and such? Also, I still need a way of running a farm with sprites and without. Thanks again.
TalimsSister

[volley07]

Thank you everyone for your replies so far. Volley07, when you say excavate, do you mean dig up jewelry, or do you mean the second mine with the diamonds and such? Also, I still need a way of running a farm with sprites and without. Thanks again.
TalimsSister

fix'd ;D You can call me Volley, by the way. :D

Digging up jewelry. I'm too lazy for the second mine. :P
I don't use the sprites. I figure, if you plant trees, then you don't have to do much besides caring for the animals, and I always do that first thing in the morning before the shops are open and stuff.

[MidnightStarr]

I planted about one or two bags of turnips, but for the first week or two, I used the save/reload trick and dug up jewerly in the mine, and then gave it to Van. Then after I got enough money, I started to build a stone poultry barn, and got some chickens.

[Gabriele532]

Turnips, then jewelry, then getting the Sprites, then upgrading all of my tools to Mystrile, getting Legendary sword, then wooing Kai lol, fishing, selling almost everyting to Van... That's how I started :)

[HMrules!!]

I plant the crops that I get when you start, then start shipping weeds and grass, and start smashing my own material. I try to find as many sprites as I can (I can usually get around 23 within the first week or so). If I need more money, I go to the mine and get as much jewellery as I can, and sell it. With that money, I but more crops. when I have enough money, I start to make a farm plan, and build barns ;D then I get animals etc and I get money from them.

[TitanicFanNumberOne]

I made money first. :)

[boomushi]

The first thing I did was dig up jewelry at the excavation site. You can get them for like 3000 each at Van's.

Just save when you first enter the site, dig around until you find something, reload, and go back to that same spot where you found the first item. Then save, dig around some more, find an item, reload your save file, and go back to where you found your second item. Once you go outside, everything (including the jewelry) resets so you can just keep digging up jewelry all day without exhausting yourself. I got like 200,000 G in just 2 days of digging by selling them to Van for about 3,000 each! If you just ship them with your shipping box, then you get only 2,000.

[solitarysumire]

The first thing I do is clear the field so I have a clean slate, and I also clear off all the other fields as well. This usually generates enough income to get plenty of seeds to plant and to buy my first ten things from Karen for the TV shopping sprite. I plant some of everything to get rolling on the ship item list. When I have enough, I have Gotz build wood and stone storage sheds, then I save up stone and money for a poultry barn. In the meantime I'm watering enough squares and chopping enough lumber to free some watering and lumbering sprites.

Once I have too many crops planted to water on my own comfortably, I start hiring the watering team. I only hire the lumber team after a storm or on the last day of the season to clear off the fields, and the fishing team I use all winter. I guess my approach is geared toward doing things all at once, as in working on sprites, events, making money, and farming all at the same time. Also, once I have enough free time, the dig site is a total cash cow (to a point), so you should hit that up. You might also consider starting to level up your crops early on (especially turnips) because that's where all the money is.