Crafting: Cooking & Farming

Cooking and Farming are two crafts which work really well together - if you choose the Yeoman profession then you can do both on one character, otherwise you might have one character that farms and sends all the ingredients to another that cooks (for example a Tinker and a Scholar).

A Quick Warning
The majority of your farming & cooking time will be spent watching little blue progress bars on the screen fill up over, and over, and over again. The temptation to leave your character alone and go off somewhere else may be high but please don't give in. The game rules require you to be present at your computer and it's not unheard of for GM's to send a message to a player to check they're really there (particularly if you decide to grind this out all at once - it's absolutely fine to do so... but you might need to prove you're a real person and not a bot). I suggest arranging for a television / radio to be nearby so you can be at your computer and doing something else at the same time!

Farming - Some Notes
The most efficient way to farm is to plant 10 fields, right on top of each other, and then to harvest them by pressing 'delete' to select the field then 'u' to use it. Repeat the 'delete' then 'u' key-presses 9 more times then plant 10 more fields and repeat.  I suggest having some good music / television on hand as farming is slow business.

Consider spending 125TP on the Universal Toolkit - it will reduce your harvesting time by 3s per harvest which, over the course of your farming career, will actually save you quite a lot of time!

You should also be aware that farming is going to produce a lot more crops than you need for each tier.

As a simple example,

• Planting a field gives you 6xp. Harvesting it gives you 0xp and Processing the crop gives 4xp.
• Each regular field yields an average of 2 Crops so each Crop you produce earns you 7xp (6/2+4)
• Apprentice Tier takes 400xp to master which means growing 58 Crops... which yields 232 Ingredients... but Apprentice Cooking only needs 75 ingredients to master.
• A Well-Tended field yield roughly 5.5 Crops... so 10 well tended field gives over 200 ingredients!

What's the point? Planting Fields is pretty quick and gets you 6xp. Harvesting and Processing takes a long time and gets you 4xp.  If you want to speed up levelling then spend your entire Proficiency Tier planting and ignoring fields.  Then, when you are working on Mastery use the Optional Ingredient to ensure critical success and only harvest enough crops to produce ingredients for your cook (with 10 critically successful fields you can easily yield 200 ingredients!) and go right back to planting and abandoning fields

Of course, some people like the slow pace of farming - if that's you then you should feel free to take your time and harvest every crop... but if you just want to get through the Tiers quickly then abandoning your fields is a good trick to know.

Apprentice 

The Apprentice Tier takes 200xp to Proficiency and an additional 400xp to Mastery (600xp Total)

Farming 

Take the Introduction to Farming Quest and plant a field of Yellow Onions then Harvest them (14-18xp)

Buy 50 Artisan Crop Seeds, Buckets of Water and Handfuls of Fertiliser and 15 Piles of Rivendell Soil

• Plant 33 fields of anything and don't harvest them (198 xp)
• Grow 10 Field of Spring Barley (with Rivendell Soil) and harvest them
• Grow 5 Fields of Yellow Onions (with Rivendell Soil) and harvest them
• Process the Crops of Yellow Onions and Spring Barley 

The exact number of crops/field is random, growing 15 fields should make sure you have enough crops to process to get the XP you need to finish the tier.  You could probably grow a couple less but if you get unlucky with the RNG then you might not have enough crops.

Cooking

Take the Introduction to Cooking quest and make a cup of spring barley flour and then a Hard Biscuit (10xp)

Buy 50 Chickens Eggs 

• Make 102 Cups of Spring Barley Flour (404xp)
• Put 2 cups aside for later (need for expert quest) and turn the rest into 50 Pie Crusts (200xp)

N.B. Keep the Pie Crusts, you will need them for the Cooks Guild rep recipes

Journeyman

The Journeyman tier takes 280xp for Proficiency and 560xp to Master (840xp Total)

Farming

Buy the Tater Field Recipe and Tater Crop Recipe and 70 Journeyman Crop Seeds, Buckets of Water & Handfuls of Fertilisers and 23 Piles of Rivendell Soil (28s 36)

• Plant 47 Fields of anything and don't harvest them (282 xp)
• Plant 7 Fields of Cabbages (with Rivendell Soil) and harvest them (42xp)
• Plant 16 Fields of Taters (with Rivendell Soil) and harvest them  (96xp)
• Process the Cabbages & Taters ( ~ 480xp)

Cooking

Buy 84 Pork Shanks (Costs 20s 16) and make 84 Stuffed Cabbages (Uses 1 Yellow Onion + 1 Cabbage + 1 Pork Shank) (840xp)

Expert

The Expert Tier takes 360xp to Proficiency and 720xp to Mastery (1080xp Total)

Farming

If you are growing for a Cook in the Cooking Guild ensure you plant at least 5 Fields of Cauliflowers as these will be needed for the rep recipes.

Cheap Cooking:

• Plant 60 Fields and don't harvest them (360xp)
• Complete the Expert Quest - see below (36xp)
• Plant 15 Fields of Green Onions with Rivendell Soil and harvest them (60xp)
• Plant 10 Fields of Cauliflowers with Rivendell Soil and harvest them (90xp)
• Process the Green Onions & Cauliflowers (~660 xp)

Eglain Rep:

• Plant 60 Fields and don't harvest them (360xp)
• Complete the Expert Quest - see below (36xp)
• Plant 25 Fields of Green Onions with Rivendell Soil and harvest them (150xp)
• Process the Green Onions (~660 xp)

Mathom Society Rep

• Plant 60 Fields and don't harvest them (360xp)
• Complete the Expert Quest - see below (36xp)
• Plant 7 Fields of Green Onions with Rivendell Soil and harvest them (60xp)
• Plant 18 Fields of Cauliflower with Rivendell Soil and harvest them (120xp)
• Process the Green Onions & Cauliflowers (~660xp)

Expert Quest: 

• Speak to a Novice Farmhand to accept the quest [1] Crafting: A Superior Farmland
• Travel to Hobbiton, in the Shire, and head just north of the village to find Olo Proudfoot. Speak to him to continue the quest and accept [1] Crafting: Artisan Farmer
• Purchase 1 Expert Crop Seed, 1 Journeyman Crop Seed and 1 Expert Pipe-weed Seed, 3 Buckets of Water & 3 Handfuls of Fertilizer
• Plant and harvest 1 Green Onion Field and 1 Cabbage Field and 1 Sweet Galenas Pipe-weed field. Process the crops.
• Deliver the crops to the 3 Hobbits (1 to the north-west, the stable master, and the inn-keeper)
• Return to Olo and turn in Crafting:Artisan Farmer then again to turn in Crafting: A Superior Farmland (36xp)
• Note: Before moving on, buy 1 Artisan Crop Seed, 1 Bucket of Purified Water and 1 Handful of Ereborian Fertiliser and plant, harvest & process 1 Field of Strawberries (From the Artisan Tier). You need these to complete the Expert Cook quest.

Cooking

Option 1 - Keeping it Cheap (Cost: Nothing)

• Make 36 Vegetable Medleys(1 Cauliflower + 1 Tater + 1 Cabbage) (360xp)
• Complete the Expert Cooking Quest (see below) (36xp)
• Make 69 Vegetable Medleys (1 Cauliflower + 1 Tater + 1 Cabbage) (720xp)

Option 2 - Mathom Society Rep (purchase the recipe for 2s 76 from Baldwin Foxtail who stands outside the Mathom-house in Michel Delving) (Costs 308s 52 in total)

Buy 174 Cuts of Beef and Pinches of Shire Seasoning

• Make 60 Seasoned Beef with Cauliflower (2 Heads of Cauliflower + 1 Cut of Beef + 1 Pinch of Shire Seasoning) (360xp)
• Complete the Expert Cooking Quest (see below) (36x)
• Make 114  Seasoned Beef with Cauliflower (2 Heads of Cauliflower + 1 Cut of Beef + 1 Pinch of Shire Seasoning)

Option 3 -Eglain Rep (Costs 106s 8). Buy the Hearty Onion Soup recipe from any novice cook.

Buy 78 Lamb Kidneys and Bottles of Water

• Make 78 Bowl of Hearty Stock x 78 (1 Green Onion + 1 Lamb Kidney + 1 Bottle of Water)
• Make 5 Hearty Onion Soup (1 Yellow Onion + 1 Tater + 1 Bowl of Hearty Stock)
• Hearty Onion Soup x 78 (1 Yellow Onion + 1 Tater + 1 Bowl of Hearty Stock)

Expert Quest

• Speak to a Novice Cook and acccept [1] Crafting: A Superior Oven
• Speak to Jewel Underhill in Michel-Delving Crafting Fields and accept [1] Crafting: Artisan Cook
• Buy 2 Bottles of Water, 1 Bag of Salt, 1 Lamb Kidney, 1 Cut of Beef and 1 Drop of Honey
• Make 1 Hard Tack Ration (2 Cups of Spring Barley + 1 Bottle of Water + 1 Bag of Salt)
• Make 1 Bowl of Hearty Stock (1 Green Onion + 1 Lamb Kidney + 1 Bottle of Water) and then 1 Beef Stew (1 Bowl of Heart Stock + 1 Cut of Beef)
• Make 1 Strawberry Pie Filling (2 Bunches of Strawberries + 1 Drop of Honey)
• Deliver the goodies to the 3 Hobbits (the Innkeeper, Odo Pipes who is sitting on top of the Inn, and Ned Diggins on the east side of town)
• Return to Jewel Underhill and turn in Crafting: Artisan Cook and then Crafting: A Superior Oven (36xp)

Guild: You can join the Cooks guild at Expert level.  The Guild is in the Crafting Fields at Michel-Delving. Speak to the Master of Guilds to join then enter the Guild House and speak to Honesty Goodbody to buy the receipes for the Small Expert Repast (16s) and Medium Expert Repast (16s). Craft these recipes as often as the cooldowns allow.

Artisan

Farming Strawberries in the Western Bree-Fields

The Artisan tier takes 440xp to gain Proficiency and 880xp to Master (Total of  1320xp)

Farming

Buy 106 Artisan Crop Seeds, Buckets of Purified Water and Handfuls of Ereborian Fertilizer and 32 Piles of Lorien Soil

If you are growing for a Guilded Cook plant at least 5 Fields of Strawberries & 5 Fields of Apples to ensure sufficient ingredients for rep recipes (replace some of the Winter Barley with these)

Cheap Option / Useful Option

• Plant and ignore 74 Fields (440xp)
• Plant and harvest 35 Fields of Winter Barley (210xp)
• Process Winter Barley (~770xp)

Mathom Society Rep:

• Plant and ignore 74 Fields (440xp)
• Plant 20 Fields of Strawberries with Lorien Soil and harvest them (120xp)
• Process Strawberries (~440xp)
• Plant 15 Fields of Winter Barley (90xp)
• Process Winter Barley (~330xp)

Cooking

Option 1 - Cheap

• Make 330 Cups of Winter Barley Flour (2 Bunches of Winter Barley)

Option 2 - Mathom Society Rep

• Make 220 Strawberry Dessert-wine (2 Bunches of Strawberries + 1 Bottle of Water + 1 Pinch of Ale Yeast + 1 Empty Glass Bottle)

Option 3 - If you don't care about the rep and don't mind a bit of prep for something useful while you level:

• Buy the Chicken Stock recipe and 190 Uncooked Chickens and 95 Bottles of Water
• Make 95 Bowls of Chicken Stock (1 Green Onion + 1 Uncooked Chicken + 1 Bottle of Water) 4xp
• Make 95 Stew of Kings (1 Bowl of Chicken Stock, 1 Tater, 1 Uncooked Chicken) 10xp

Master 

The Master Tier takes 520xp for Proficiency and 1040xp for Mastery (1560xp total)

Farming

• Plant and ignore 87 fields (522xp)
• Plant & Harvest 20 Fields of Blackberries (120xp)
• Plant & Harvest 20 Fields of Golden Shire Taters (120xp)
• Process the Blackberries & Taters (880xp)

Cheap Option (takes longer)

• Plant 20 Fields of Blackberries (120xp)
• Plant 20 Fields of Golden Shire Taters (120xp)
• Process the Blackberries & Taters (~480xp)
• Plant 36 Fields of Umbel Hops (216xp)
• Process the Umbel Hops (~792xp)

Cooking:

Cheap Option (93s 60)

Make 390 Prepared Umbel Hops (2 Bunch of Umbel Hops + Bottle of Water)

Useful Food: Lembas / Perfect Pie

Update 04/12/20: Whilst it's been a long time since I updated this guide a kind reader has continued the work all the way through to Minas Ithil farming/cooking. See the comments below for a link.