Stardew Valley Artisan Goods Guide: Best Products, Kegs & Profit

If you want to make serious gold in Stardew Valley, artisan goods are where the real money is. Raw crops sell for decent prices, but processed goods — wine, jelly, cheese, cloth — can multiply your income two to five times over. Combined with the right profession, artisan production is the single most powerful income stream available on your farm.

This guide covers every major artisan machine, the best inputs to use, how to decide between kegs and preserves jars, and how to scale your operation to generate thousands of gold per week. Whether you are just getting started with processing or optimising a late-game farm, these strategies will help you squeeze maximum profit out of every crop and animal product. For broader gold farming strategies, check our dedicated money-making guide.

What Are Artisan Goods?

Artisan goods are processed items created by placing raw ingredients into crafting machines on your farm. They include:

Wine and Juice (from the Keg)
Pickles and Jelly (from the Preserves Jar)
Cheese and Goat Cheese (from the Cheese Press)
Cloth (from the Loom)
Truffle Oil and Cooking Oil (from the Oil Maker)
Mayonnaise and Duck Mayonnaise (from the Mayonnaise Machine)
Beer, Pale Ale, Mead, Coffee, and Green Tea (from the Keg)
Aged Roe (from the Fish Pond output placed in a Preserves Jar)

Each artisan good sells for significantly more than the raw input, and most machines can be set up to run passively while you focus on other activities.

The Artisan Profession: Why It Is the Best Level 10 Choice

At Farming level 10, you choose between two specialisations: Agriculturist (crops grow 10% faster) or Artisan (artisan goods sell for 40% more). For most playstyles, Artisan is the clear winner.

The +40% multiplier applies to every artisan product you produce — wine, jelly, cheese, cloth, truffle oil, mayo, and more. This stacks on top of already-multiplied prices, meaning high-value outputs like Starfruit Wine go from 2,250g (base keg output) to 3,150g per bottle. Ancient Fruit Wine jumps from 2,310g to 3,234g.

To reach Artisan, you must first choose the Tiller profession at Farming level 5 (crops sell for 10% more). Artisan unlocks at level 10 from the Tiller path. If you took a different level 5 profession, visit the Statue of Uncertainty in the Sewers to switch for 10,000g.

Keg Guide

Crafting the Keg

To craft a Keg, you need: 30 Wood, 1 Copper Bar, 1 Iron Bar, and 1 Oak Resin. The recipe unlocks at Farming level 8. Oak Resin is tapped from Oak Trees using a Tapper.

What Kegs Produce

Wine: Any fruit input. Sells for 3x the base crop price. Processing time: 7 days.
Juice: Any vegetable input. Sells for 2.25x the base crop price. Processing time: 4 days.
Beer: Wheat input. 200g base. Processing time: 1 day 16 hours.
Pale Ale: Hops input. 300g base. Processing time: 1 day 16 hours.
Mead: Honey input. 200g base (varies with flower honey). Processing time: 10 hours.
Coffee: 5 Coffee Beans. 150g. Processing time: 2 hours.
Green Tea: Tea Leaves. 100g. Processing time: 3 hours.

Best Keg Inputs by Profit

Input	Base Price	Output	Output Price	With Artisan
Ancient Fruit	550g	Ancient Fruit Wine	2,310g	3,234g
Starfruit	750g	Starfruit Wine	2,250g	3,150g
Melon	250g	Melon Wine	750g	1,050g
Pumpkin	320g	Pumpkin Juice	720g	1,008g
Red Cabbage	260g	Red Cabbage Juice	585g	819g
Hops	25g	Pale Ale	300g	420g

Ancient Fruit Wine is the single most profitable artisan product in the game. Ancient Fruit grows all season in the Greenhouse (or with a Ginger Island farm), regrows every 7 days after the first harvest, and produces wine worth 3,234g per bottle with the Artisan profession. A greenhouse full of Ancient Fruit feeding a barn of kegs is the endgame money setup.

Starfruit Wine is close in per-bottle value but Starfruit only grows in Summer and does not regrow, making it less efficient for sustained production unless you use the Greenhouse.

Preserves Jar Guide

Crafting the Preserves Jar

To craft a Preserves Jar, you need: 50 Wood, 40 Stone, and 8 Coal. The recipe unlocks at Farming level 4, making it available much earlier than the Keg.

What Preserves Jars Produce

Pickles: Any vegetable input. Formula: (2 x base price) + 50g.
Jelly: Any fruit input. Formula: (2 x base price) + 50g.
Aged Roe: Roe from a Fish Pond. Processing time: 4 days.

When Preserves Jars Beat Kegs

The flat +50g bonus in the Preserves Jar formula is what makes it shine for low-value crops. A Parsnip (35g base) becomes Pickled Parsnip at 120g — a 3.4x multiplier — whereas a keg would only produce 78g juice (2.25x). For cheap crops, the jar wins clearly.

The crossover point is around 200g base price. Above that, the keg’s percentage-based multiplier (3x for wine, 2.25x for juice) overtakes the jar’s flat bonus. Below it, use the jar.

Crop	Base Price	Best Machine	Output Price (No Artisan)
Parsnip	35g	Preserves Jar	120g (Pickled Parsnip)
Potato	80g	Preserves Jar	210g (Pickled Potato)
Cauliflower	175g	Preserves Jar	400g (Pickled Cauliflower)
Melon	250g	Keg	750g (Melon Wine)
Pumpkin	320g	Keg	720g (Pumpkin Juice)
Starfruit	750g	Keg	2,250g (Starfruit Wine)

Cheese Press Guide

The Cheese Press converts milk from cows and goats into cheese. It is crafted with 45 Wood, 45 Stone, 10 Copper Bars, and unlocked at Farming level 6.

Milk (250g) → Cheese: 230g (regular quality), 345g (gold quality)
Large Milk (380g) → Gold Quality Cheese: 400g
Goat Milk (225g) → Goat Cheese: 375g
Large Goat Milk (345g) → Gold Quality Goat Cheese: 562g

With the Artisan profession, Gold Quality Cheese reaches 345g x 1.4 = 483g and Large Milk cheese reaches 560g. Goat cheese scales especially well. Cows with high friendship and a Deluxe Barn will produce Large Milk regularly, making the Cheese Press reliably profitable.

Loom Guide

The Loom converts wool from sheep (and rabbits’ wool via a slightly different path) into Cloth. It is crafted with 60 Wood, 30 Fiber, and 1 Pine Tar, unlocking at Farming level 7.

Wool (340g) → Cloth: 470g (regular), 685g (gold quality cloth is not a standard output — gold wool produces standard cloth)
With Artisan: Cloth → 658g

Cloth is also used in crafting (Emily’s sewing machine, certain furniture), so keep some in reserve. Rabbits’ Rabbit’s Foot can be more valuable sold directly than converted. For pure profit, a Deluxe Barn with multiple sheep producing wool daily is a low-maintenance income stream.

Oil Maker Guide

The Oil Maker processes truffles, sunflower seeds, corn, and sunflowers into oils. It is crafted with 50 Hardwood, unlocking at Farming level 8.

Truffle (625g) → Truffle Oil: 1,065g (1,491g with Artisan)
Sunflower (80g) → Sunflower Oil: 100g (usable in cooking)
Corn → Oil: 100g

Truffle Oil is the standout here. Pigs with high friendship forage truffles automatically each day (when it is not raining and not winter). A barn full of happy pigs can produce multiple truffles daily, and at 1,491g per Truffle Oil with Artisan, the Oil Maker is one of the best passive income machines in the game. Note: pigs cannot forage during winter, so plan accordingly.

Mayonnaise Machine Guide

The Mayonnaise Machine converts eggs from chickens, ducks, and dinosaurs into mayonnaise. It is crafted with 15 Wood, 15 Stone, 1 Earth Crystal, and 1 Copper Bar, unlocking at Farming level 2.

Chicken Egg (50g) → Mayonnaise: 190g (266g with Artisan)
Large Egg (95g) → Gold Quality Mayo: 285g (399g with Artisan)
Duck Egg (95g) → Duck Mayonnaise: 375g (525g with Artisan)
Void Egg (65g) → Void Mayonnaise: 275g (385g with Artisan)
Dinosaur Egg (350g) → Dinosaur Mayonnaise: 800g (1,120g with Artisan)

Duck Mayonnaise offers excellent value relative to the cost of keeping ducks. Dinosaur Mayo from the Dinosaur Egg is exceptional, though Dinosaur Eggs are rare. For pure volume, a coop full of chickens producing Large Eggs daily and converting them to Gold Mayo is a consistent earner.

Keg vs Preserves Jar: How to Decide

This is the most common question in artisan production. The short answer:

Use Kegs for fruits and vegetables worth more than ~200g base price.
Use Preserves Jars for cheap crops under ~200g base price.
Use Preserves Jars for speed when you have a surplus of average-value crops and want faster turnover (4 days vs 7 days for wine).

In practice, the best strategy is to dedicate most machines to your highest-value crop (Ancient Fruit or Starfruit in Kegs) and use Preserves Jars for everything else as a secondary operation. Do not leave machines idle — any crop running through a jar earns more than the same crop sitting in a chest.

How to Scale Your Artisan Operation

The key bottleneck in artisan production is machine count. Each Keg processes one item at a time. To produce at scale, you need dozens of machines. Here is how to build up efficiently:

Start small: Build 5–10 Kegs or Preserves Jars as soon as you have materials. Run whatever crops you have.
Dedicate a building or area: A Shed (built by Robin, 10,000g + 300 Wood + 150 Stone) holds up to 67 Kegs and is the best dedicated artisan building. A well-designed farm layout with dedicated artisan sheds dramatically increases throughput.
Fill the Greenhouse: Once unlocked via the Community Center or Joja route, the Greenhouse lets you grow Ancient Fruit and Starfruit year-round. This is the single biggest production unlock in the game.
Use Ginger Island: A second farm on Ginger Island (unlocked after completing the Boat repairs) adds another growing area for year-round crops.
Time your harvests to your machines: Wine takes 7 days. If you plant a regrowable fruit that regrows every 7 days (like Ancient Fruit), each harvest perfectly refills each keg.

How Many Kegs Do You Need?

A full Greenhouse holds 116 Ancient Fruit plants. With a 7-day regrow cycle matching the keg processing time, you need at least 116 Kegs to process every harvest without bottleneck. At 3,234g per bottle with Artisan, that is over 374,000g of wine every week from the Greenhouse alone.

A single Shed holds 67 Kegs. You will want at least two Sheds for a full Greenhouse-scale operation. Place your Sheds close to each other and to the Greenhouse to minimise walking time on collection days.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Taking Agriculturist over Artisan at level 10: The 10% faster crop growth from Agriculturist is nice, but the 40% artisan goods bonus generates far more total gold over a season. Always take Artisan if you are running any processing operation.
Using Kegs for cheap crops: Putting Parsnips or Green Beans in a Keg wastes machine time. The jar’s flat +50g formula is better for low-value inputs.
Forgetting processing time in profit calculations: A juice (4 days) turns over faster than wine (7 days). If machine time is limited, vegetable juice can out-earn wine on a per-day basis for mid-value crops.
Leaving machines empty: Idle machines earn nothing. Even low-value outputs are better than zero. If you run out of premium crops, fill machines with whatever is available.
Not building a Shed: Placing machines scattered around your farm wastes movement time every collection day. Centralise in a Shed for efficiency.

Conclusion

Artisan goods production is the foundation of any serious late-game income strategy in Stardew Valley. The Artisan profession, a Greenhouse full of Ancient Fruit, and two Sheds packed with Kegs is the classic endgame setup — and for good reason. It generates more gold per week than almost any other activity in the game with minimal daily effort once set up.

Start building your operation in Year 1 with Preserves Jars for early crops, upgrade to Kegs as you unlock them, secure the Artisan profession at Farming level 10, and work towards the Greenhouse as your medium-term goal. Each step meaningfully increases your weekly income and brings you closer to a fully automated artisan empire.