5 Great Uses for Pickles in Stardew Valley

Planted some veggies and wondering what to do with them? You can always sell them, but there are other uses for Pickles as well! Read on to learn everything about Pickles in Stardew Valley.

What Are Pickles?

Pickles are a type of artisan good that is made by inserting a vegetable into a preserves jar. Placing fruit in the same machine yields Jelly instead.

How do You Make Pickles?

To get yourself a jar of this savory preserve, you must follow a couple of simple steps. To begin with, you’ll need to reach level four in farming to gain access to the crafting recipe for the Preserves Jar. This machine can be made with 50 units of Wood, 40 of Stone, and 8 pieces of Coal.

Once you’ve got your Preserves Jar all set up, you need something to put inside it. Any vegetable can turn into a jar of pickles.

Once you’ve placed your veggie inside, you’ll need to wait for the machine to process it. No matter which vegetable you place inside, you’ll need to wait about 3 days for the vegetable to be ready. After that, you’re all set and can harvest the jar.

Other Ways to Get Pickles

Occasionally, the Travelling Merchant may sell a jar of Pickles. However, these pickles will only be worth 100g and they will cost 300g-1000g, so they are probably not worth purchasing, depending on what you need them for.

You can find the Travelling Merchant in the upper-western part of the Cindersap Forest on Fridays and Sundays.

What are the best things to pickle?

If you’re looking to make the highest profit possible, your best bet is to pickle your most valuable vegetables. Each pickle jar’s worth is calculated by the following formula:

2X Base Vegetable Price + 50

Here’s a table of the most profitable pickles, organized by season:

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Five Uses For Pickles

1. Sell them at Pierre’s

The most obvious purpose of Pickles is to sell them. For maximum profit be sure to do the following things:

1. Only pickle basic quality vegetables: Since the quality of your vegetables doesn’t increase the price of the pickled version of them, only pickle your most basic quality vegetables to generate the most profit. Your higher quality vegetables can be sold without going in the Preserves Jar first.
   
   With the level five Tiller profession, an Iridium Quality Red Cabbage is actually worth more than Red Cabbage Pickles. Conversely, Red Cabbage Pickles are worth nearly double the price of a basic Red Cabbage.
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2. Pick up the Artisan Profession: The Artisan Profession can be selected at level ten of the Farming Skill if you’ve previously selected the Tiller profession at level five. Artisans sell their artisan goods, including Pickles, for 40% more gold.

2. Give them Away

Whereas Jelly is a Liked gift for every village except for Sebastian, Pickles are a little more controversial! Nearly everyone likes Pickles, except for the following people, who have stronger opinions:

• Loved Gift: Harvey loves Pickles! If you’re trying to befriend Harvey, or looking for something more, then Pickles are a great way to his heart.
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• Disliked Gift: Like the other children, pickles might be a little too sour for Leo.
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• Hated Gift: True to real life, the young Jas and Vincent both absolutely hate Pickles. Sebastian and Maru, the two half-siblings, and the two Joja workers, Sam and Shane, despise Pickles as well.

3. Offer The Jar to Your Fish

Fish Ponds are a type of farm building in which the farmer can raise Fish. Fish brought up in these ponds regularly generate Roe, and some Fish provide more unique and valuable items as well. Once built, the Fish Ponds only have capacity for one single fish. However, by doing Fish Pond Quests, you can raise the capacity to ten fish per pond.

A quest will pop up every few days until the pond reaches full capacity. During the quest, your fish will request a random item, with different types of fish requesting different items.Interestingly, Pickles are among the most highly sought items by fish! The following fish may request a jar of pickles:

1. Catfish – This difficult-to-catch River fish may request a single jar of pickles for its third quest. Catfish are a great pond choice because of their high daily chance to produce Roe.
   
2. Rainbow Trout – This Summer Mountain Lake catch may request a jar of Pickles for its third quest as well. Rainbow Trouts can produce Rainbow Shells and even Prismatic Shards, so they’re a great option for a Fish Pond.
   
3. Spook Fish – The elusive Spook Fish can only be caught during the Night Market, and may request a jar of Pickles for its third quest. Spook Fish have a 0.3% chance to produce a Treasure Chest instead of Roe.
   
4. Super Cucumber – These Ocean Fish are tough to catch but very worth it. They may request a jar of Pickles for their third quest. Aside from Roe, Super Cucumbers may also produce Iridium Ore and Amethysts.
   
5. Sturgeon – Finally, the Sturgeon is a Mountain Lake fish that can be caught during Summer and Winter, albeit with great difficulty. Sturgeon Roe can be turned into Caviar, a more expensive version of Aged Roe. These fish may request Pickles during their second quest.

4. Tailor a Shirt with Them

Like most items in Stardew Valley, Pickles can be used to tailor a piece of clothing. In order to accomplish this, you need to gain access to a Sewing Machine. Emily will let you use her Sewing Machine after you’ve acquired some Cloth first.

Once you’ve got permission, head on over to Haley and Emily’s house and into the crafts room. Place your bolt of Cloth on the left side of the Sewing Machine and the Pickles in the top right slot. Next, click the power button.

5. Use Them as Green Dye

Jarred pickles made of any type of vegetable can also be used to dye clothing on the sewing machine. Simply add your desired, dyeable, piece of clothing on the left slot in the sewing machine and the pickles in the top right slot.

Pickles produce a very light, but vibrant, shade of green. Below you can see an example of a pickle-dyed Button Down Short and a Green Algae-dyed Button Down Shirt. As you can see, the two dyes are different in starkness. Pickle-dyed green produces a very mossy green when dyed twice, a vibrant lime green when dyed three times, and a deep forest green when dyed four times.