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Fall is the payoff season. The farm is finally producing real money, the Valley looks its prettiest, and two of the year’s biggest events land here. It’s still a farming season — unlike Winter — but the smart play is to lock in cash crops early, then use the extra time for relationships, the Fair, and finishing Community Center leftovers before the snow hits.

Events

Stardew Valley Fair

Date: Fall 16
Location: Pelican Town square (enter between 9am and 3pm)

What Happens

• The whole town shows up for games, food, and the Grange Display contest.
• You submit up to 9 items for judging, then spend Star Tokens at the prize booth.
• Time stops once you’re in the festival. Shops are closed that day.

Rewards

• Star Tokens from the Grange Display and minigames
• Prize booth highlights: Stardrop (2,000 tokens, one-time), Rarecrow #1, Fedora, Dried Sunflowers, Fairy Box, etc.
• First-place Grange Display pays the most tokens.

Why It Matters

• This is the only guaranteed Stardrop you can buy. Year 1, that booth is the whole point.

Tips

• Build a Grange Display with 9 different categories if you can: animal product, artisan good, cooked dish, fish, forage, fruit, mineral, vegetable, plus one flex slot.
• Quality matters more than raw price. Gold/Iridium items score higher.
• Save tokens for the Stardrop first. Cosmetics can wait until later years.
• Handle Pierre, Clint, and Robin the day before — everything is locked on Fair day.

Spirit’s Eve

Date: Fall 27
Location: Pelican Town (enter between 10:00pm and 11:50pm)

What Happens

• Halloween night. Pierre runs a seasonal booth, and the Wizard’s maze sits behind the square.
• Walk the maze to the end for the seasonal prize. Time is frozen once you enter.

Rewards

• Golden Pumpkin (odd years) or Prize Ticket (even years) at the end of the maze
• Pierre’s booth: Jack-O-Lanterns, Jack-O-Lantern recipe, Rarecrow #2, Funky Rug

Why It Matters

• Golden Pumpkin is a universal loved gift (except for a couple holdouts) and sells for 2,500g if you don’t want to keep it. Easy friendship bomb going into Winter.

Tips

• Don’t show up late. After 11:50pm you miss it.
• In the maze, look for the hidden gap in the hedges near the “?” sign — that’s the shortcut to the prize.
• Buy the Jack-O-Lantern recipe once if you like decorating. Rarecrow #2 is worth grabbing if you collect them.

Birthdays & Relationships

Best Crops

Fall is where the farm prints money if you plant on Day 1.

• Cranberries — best all-around crop. 7 days to mature, then every 5 days, two berries per harvest. Plant as many as you can afford.
• Pumpkins — high single-harvest value, two harvests if planted early, chance at giant crops in 3×3 plots. Also Abigail/Willy gift and bundle item.
• Sweet Gem Berry — if you lucked into Rare Seeds from the Traveling Cart. 24 days, 3,000g raw. Don’t process it.
• Grapes — trellis crop, keeps producing, great in kegs.
• Fairy Rose — plant near bee houses for Fairy Rose Honey.
• Corn — if you planted it in Summer, it keeps producing through Fall.
• Year 2 extras: Artichokes are cheap and strong.

Greenhouse still loves Ancient Fruit and Starfruit. Don’t rip those out for Fall crops.

Money-Making Strategies

Best Strategies

• Cranberry fields + preserves jars or dehydrators
• Pumpkins sold raw or juiced
• Animal products every morning
• Artisan goods from Summer leftovers (hops beer, starfruit/ancient fruit wine)
• Blackberry scramble Fall 8–11
• Mining when the farm is on autopilot
• Fair Stardrop, then back to the grind

Foraging

• Blackberries (bushes, Fall 8–11 — pick every bush you can reach)
• Hazelnuts
• Wild Plums
• Common Mushrooms
• Chanterelles in the Secret Woods
• Purple / Red Mushrooms in the mines or mushroom cave

Fishing
Solid, not Winter-level. Priority:

• Salmon (river, daytime, especially early Fall)
• Tiger Trout, Catfish (rain), Walleye (rain, night)
• Albacore, Anchovy, Sardine, Eel
• Legendary: Angler in the north river by JojaMart / railroad area on rainy Fall days

Artisan

• Cranberry jelly or wine if kegs/jars are free
• Pumpkin juice
• Cheese and mayo for daily gold
• Wine from greenhouse fruit
• Fairy Rose Honey if you planted flowers by the hives
• Don’t waste Rare Seeds or Sweet Gem Berries in a keg

Community Center

Can Complete

• Artisan: Truffle Oil, Cloth, Goat Cheese, Cheese, Honey, Jelly
• Adventurer’s: Slime (99), Bat Wing (10), Solar/Void Essence
• Fall Forage: Wild Plum, Hazelnut, Blackberry, Common Mushroom
• Exotic Foraging: Coconut/Cactus Fruit, Cave Carrot, Red/Purple Mushroom, Maple Syrup/Oak Resin/Pine Tar, Morel
• River Fish: Sunfish, Catfish, Shad, Tiger Trout
• Lake Fish: Largemouth Bass, Carp, Bullhead, Sturgeon
• Ocean Fish: Sardine, Tuna, Red Snapper, Tilapia
• Night Fish: Walleye, Bream, Eel
• Crab Pot: Lobster/Crab/Shrimp; Crayfish/Snail/Periwinkle; Cockle/Mussel
• Specialty Fish: Pufferfish, Ghostfish, Sandfish, Woodskip
• Chef’s: Maple Syrup, Fiddlehead Fern, Truffle, Maki Roll, Fried Egg
• Dye: Red Mushroom, Sea Urchin, Sunflower, Red Cabbage, Duck Feather
• Field Research: Purple Mushroom, Nautilus Shell, Chub, Frozen Geode
• Enchanter’s: Wine, Rabbit’s Foot
• Animal / Quality Crops leftovers: Large Milk/Egg, Corn, Melon, Pumpkin, Oak Resin, etc.
• If the Community Center is still open on Fall 27, finish what you can before Winter. Fall’s job is simple: get rich, get the Stardrop, get the Golden Pumpkin, and walk into Winter already set up.