Stardew Valley: Everything You Need To Know About Preserves Jars

Crafting artisan goods from your crops is a fantastic way to boost your income in Stardew Valley. While large-scale operations for producing jelly and wine often come later, preserves jars are accessible early on, offering significant advantages to even beginning farmers.

Preserves jars offer a multitude of uses and artisan goods. They significantly increase profits from fruits and vegetables and are crucial for maximizing the value of your fish ponds. This guide covers everything you need to know about using them effectively.

Updated January 11, 2025, by Demaris Oxman: Stardew Valley's 1.6 update introduced a fantastic new feature: pickling! A wide array of foraged items, from common dandelions to rare purple mushrooms, can now be preserved, greatly increasing their value. This guide has been updated to reflect these exciting changes.

Where To Get Preserves Jars In Stardew Valley

The recipe is unlocked at Farming Level 4, requiring:

• 50 Wood
• 40 Stone
• 8 Coal

These materials are readily available, making preserves jars ideal for quickly producing large quantities of artisan goods. Wood comes from chopping trees, stone from breaking rocks with your pickaxe, and coal is easily mined or obtained from dust sprites.

Beyond crafting, you’ll receive a preserves jar for completing the Quality Crops Bundle (or Rare Crops Bundle in the remixed version) in the Community Center. They may also appear in the Prize Machine at Mayor Lewis's house.

What Are Preserves Jars Used For In Stardew Valley?

The following items can be processed in a preserves jar, each yielding a different artisan good. Choosing the Artisan profession at Farming Level 10 boosts the sale price of these goods by 40%.

Item	Product	Sell Price	Health/Energy	Processing Time
Fruit	Jelly	2x (base fruit value) + 50	Edible fruit: 2x base fruit energy & 2x base fruit health; Inedible fruit: Health: 0.5x base fruit value, Energy: 0.225 base fruit value	2-3 in-game days
Vegetable, Mushroom, or Forage	Pickles	2x (base item value) + 50	Edible items: 1.75x base item energy & 1.75x base item health; Inedible items: Energy: 0.625x base item value, Health: 0.28125 base item value	2-3 in-game days
Sturgeon Roe	Caviar	500g	175 Energy, 78 Health	4 in-game days
Any Other Fish Roe	Aged Roe	60 + (base fish price)	100 Energy, 45 Health	2-3 in-game days

Only energy-boosting mushrooms and foraged items can be pickled. Poisonous items like red mushrooms cannot be processed. Prices are calculated from the base item value, regardless of quality. Therefore, use your lowest-quality produce for maximum profit.

Preserves Jars or Kegs?

Preserves jars are often compared to kegs. Preserves jars are more profitable for fruits under 50g and vegetables/forage under 160g. They also process much faster. High-yield, low-value crops like eggplants, wild berries, corn, and tomatoes are ideal.

Preserves jars are essential for processing fish roe, maximizing the return on your fishing skill. They're also the only way to increase the value of mushrooms, often yielding higher profits than dehydrators.