Stardew Valley’s Farming Master

Chapter 160: Yoba’s Blessing

“So, I’ve been in Stardew Valley for twelve days already? But why are some of these parsnips, the ones I planted a day later, already ripe too?”

Lyon glanced across the field and saw that almost all the parsnips he had planted were ready for harvest. It puzzled him. He knew he had planted a lot of parsnips, but not all on the same day. Yet every single one he could see was mature. It was strange.

Still, puzzling over it wouldn’t change the fact that the system now marked them as ripe. Since they were ready, Lyon wasn’t about to let the opportunity pass. Even though it was his first time growing parsnips, he knew how to pull them up—just like pulling a radish.

He crouched down, gripped the leaves sprouting from the top, and gave a firm tug. Out came a parsnip the size of a baby’s arm, still dusted with soil, looking remarkably like a white radish.

“Parsnip (Vegetable): A spring tuber similar to a carrot. Rich in nutrients and with an earthy flavor.”

As soon as he held one in his hand, the system description appeared. Grinning, Lyon carried the parsnip into his cabin, washed it clean, and bit into it.

It was crisp, slightly grainy, and reminded him of celery—sweet at first, but with a faint tingling spice as he chewed. It was juicy, refreshing, and all in all, pretty good.

This was the first crop he had grown entirely by himself, from start to finish. Unable to resist, he ate the whole thing, savoring it as a reward for his labor.

With the big parsnip in his stomach, Lyon felt more than just full. A warm satisfaction welled up in him, and he couldn’t help but smile.

As a child, he never understood why his parents looked so happy during the summer wheat harvest, even though they toiled from dawn to dusk in the blazing sun, racing against the weather.Now, he understood. That smile came from the joy of harvest—a deep-rooted human love and yearning for food. It was the hope etched into every farmer’s heart.

It was the knowledge that effort would always yield reward. That belief spurred people forward, pushing them to sow and toil again, in the hope of the next bounty.

A boss might lie to you, sell you dreams. But the land never would. As long as you worked and disaster didn’t strike, the fruits of your labor would be the most honest reward.

Still smiling, Lyon pulled up each ripe parsnip one by one. He didn’t mind the mud clinging to his clothes and shoes. Instead of storing them in his inventory, he laid them neatly on a patch of empty ground beside the field.

When the last parsnip was harvested, he looked at the fresh pile and laughed aloud.

Gazing at them, still streaked with earth, Lyon felt as if he were looking at his own children—proud and happy.

And then, the system notifications appeared.

“Your long hours of farming have given you new insight into plant cultivation. Your Farming skill has increased by one level.

During harvest, your desire for better-quality crops grew stronger. You have learned a method to improve plant growth. You thought of using fertilizer to enrich the soil. Recipe for Basic Fertilizer unlocked.

You have received Yoba’s Blessing. Crops you plant yourself will never suffer from pests or disease.”

“Basic Fertilizer: Improves soil quality slightly, increasing the chance of higher-quality crops. Must be used on tilled soil. Materials required: Sap ×2.”

After admiring the harvest for a moment, Lyon calmed himself and began sorting the parsnips. He picked out the larger ones, then compared them again to select the biggest and most uniform.

When he was done, he had thirty-one normal-sized parsnips, eight larger ones, and only two that were both big and perfectly shaped.

There were no silver or gold star icons to mark their quality, but the size and appearance made it obvious enough.

The two largest were surely gold-quality crops. The bigger-than-normal ones were probably silver quality, and the rest were ordinary.

He stored them all in his system inventory. The fact that the parsnips now occupied three separate slots confirmed his guess—this was how the system distinguished quality without explicit star marks.

That got him thinking about whether crop quality was tied to seed quality.

Each seed produced one parsnip. For this harvest, the seeds had come from three different sources: a gift from Lewis, some bought at Pierre’s General Store, and mixed seeds dropped when cutting grass. But since he hadn’t planned for a comparison test, he couldn’t tell which seeds had produced the silver or gold-quality crops.

His guess was that the seeds themselves weren’t very different in quality. If they had been, the system would have labeled them like the “select” cauliflower seeds Gunther had once given him.

This harvest was probably thanks to the rich soil of Red Star Farm.

Normal soil wouldn’t have matured parsnips this fast, especially not when some were planted days apart. The timing still intrigued him.

Unfortunately, there was no one to answer his questions. So Lyon returned to his work.

The harvested parsnips left small pits in the soil. Lyon tilled them again, loosening the earth until it was ready for planting. He also spread the fertilizer Lewis had brought over earlier, remembering the newly unlocked recipe.

Without that system reminder, the bag might have sat by the woodpile for weeks.

The fertilizer was enough for about twenty plots. To cover the rest, Lyon went back into his cabin, took sap from his storage chest, and made twenty-two more portions. He spread them on the remaining tilled soil, then, without watering, hopped on his bike and rode toward Pelican Town.

After all, he needed more seeds to fill the space left by the harvested parsnips. This time, he planned to plant nothing but cauliflower, to maximize his profit.