Best Foods & Varieties

Discover the best foods to grow and produce in Manor Lords! Learn about bread, vegetables, apples, eggs, and why meat, berries, and honey fall short for feeding your growing population.

Alright, let's talk about keeping your villagers fed and happy in Manor Lords. Getting the right food variety is super important for keeping them from getting grumpy, and some options are way better than others, especially as your town grows. We'll go over the top picks and then look at the ones that are a bit more… situational.

Top-Tier Food Sources

When you're aiming for the best food sources, you'll want to focus on these:

• Bread
• Vegetables
• Apples
• Eggs

Bread: The Staple

Bread is your go-to for feeding the masses. You'll be using emmer and other grains for this, so get ready to plant a whole lot of wheat across your farming settlements. If your starting region has crummy soil quality, don't sweat it – you can always invest in Rye for feeding a large population. Expanding to claim land with better farming fertilization is also a smart move, letting you import food if your main town needs it. Pro-tip: If your starting settlement has really poor fertilization, get those farm fields down ASAP and set them to fallow. This starts improving the soil right away, giving you a passive boost by the time your farmhands get to plowing.

Vegetables: Efficient & Easy

Vegetables grown in large burgage plot extensions are incredibly efficient food sources, right up there with bread. They're fantastic because you can get a lot of them, and they're pretty cheap to set up. The bigger the extension on your burgage plot, the more space you have for those backyard crops. Your villagers will automatically plant them from March and harvest from September to November. More space means more planting and harvesting for them. It's super easy to flood your market stalls with fresh veggies for most of the year. Honestly, almost every crop you plant in a burgage plot extension equals one vegetable, so a few of these plots can produce a ton of food. It gets a bit less efficient with a massive population, but it's still a great way to ensure food variety.

Apples: A Long-Term Investment

Apples can definitely serve your population well, but there's a catch: they only produce a small amount for the first three years. By year four, the trees mature and give you the full yield. It's worth the wait if you have other sustainable food sources, but it's not ideal for a brand-new settlement. Plus, apples cost a development point and 50 regional wealth, making them a pricey early-game option. Still, they're better than the Honey development point choice because they're way more efficient. We've got more detailed tips on using apple orchards if you're interested.

Eggs: Consistent Variety

Eggs come from the Chicken burgage plot extension, giving you passive egg production constantly. These eggs add to your market stalls, providing that all-important food variety. While not the primary way to feed your entire population, eggs are a cheap and consistent food source that helps keep your citizens' approval ratings up, especially as they move into upgraded burgage plots.

Situational Food Sources

These foods can be useful, but they tend to have issues when your population gets large:

• Meat
• Berries
• Honey

Meat: Early Game Powerhouse, Late Game Luxury

Meat is a fantastic food source early on, especially if your starting region is rich with wild animals. However, without a dedicated butchery mechanic, meat becomes more of a luxury item in the mid to late game. You'll likely need to import it if you want to keep it as a staple. While there are better trapping developments for passive meat income, they often aren't as worthwhile as other development options available.

Berries: Competing Demands

Berries are in a similar boat to meat. You can only get them from wild berry patches via a gathering hut. A small patch can feed your population early on, but here's the kicker: berries are also crucial for making dyes, which are used in clothing and cloaks. Your industries will likely demand berries more than your people in the mid to late game, making them a poor food choice. Developments like Forest Management can help increase berry production, especially if you find rich deposits, but it's still not the most efficient use of your resources if you don't have those rich spots.

Honey: Low Yield, High Effort

We generally don't recommend Honey. It requires dedicated workers, and you're limited to just two apiary structures per region. Considering the amount of honey you get throughout the year versus the workers needed to manage it, honey is very inefficient. It barely contributes to food variety because it's so slow to get to market. If you're going to spend a development point on a food variety, it's almost always better to invest in improving forests for berries or getting apple orchards in less fertile areas.

So there you have it! Now you've got a much clearer picture of the best foods to focus on in Manor Lords to keep your people fed and your approval ratings high. Happy farming!