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[How To] Farm for Food

There’s no doubt that you’ve noticed that your meter for hunger has gone down substantially since you’ve begun your stay in the world of Minecraft; and since I know that you’re a well to-do pacifist and you simply cannot bring yourself to cut little piggy down in cold blood for his delicious pork meats you need an alternative source for food. Well then; Grab your hoes, shovels, and buckets; and let’s get to work!

Farming is an art not many people have yet mastered. On the surface it may look simple and quick, but, just like in life; it takes a lot of care and attention to grow a decent crop. Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

  • A hoe
  • A shovel
  • A bucket
  • spacious flatlands

Now that we have assembled all of our tools it’s time to start the search for some grass. Which shouldn’t be too terribly difficult. With the grass sprawling the land before you, equip your hoe and allow yourself to be consumed by bloodlust. Take that hoe and start whacking away at some plants. After the mindless slaughter you’ll see a bunch of little green dots on the ground. These are seeds which can be grown into wheat. Gather up your seeds and start tilling up your ground by Right-clicking on the square you want to till.

Something to keep in mind while assembling the garden of your dreams; any plants that you step on have a chance of being destroyed. The same goes for other creatures, or anything with feet for that matter. So how do we keep the chickens and cows out of our crops? Simple: We build a fence. Make sure your fence is away from any kind of incline, or raised surface so that a pig or rabbit can’t hop the fence.

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Now with your fence set up; we can worry about getting your plants watered. While they may not need it, having tilled tiles in a close proximity will speed up the growth of your crops. While your garden doesn’t need a river flowing through it; you will need to dig a few holes around your garden. When placing water, you won’t have to place them nearby one another. A single block of water can hydrate tilled dirt from up to four blocks away in any direction; including diagonals.

Here is a comparison of dry farmland and hydrated.

Here is a comparison of dry farmland and hydrated.

Now that we’ve gotten our land tilled, our wheat planted, and our fences placed; we can start harvesting that scrumptious plant matter. Wheat itself has a growth sequence that takes place in 7 stages over the course of two Minecraft days (roughly 37 minutes real-time). When looking at the plants to determine which stage they’re in (come on, lucky number seven!) take a look at the tops of the plants and the height of the fronds themselves. While shorter plants are obviously not ready for the picking; there are stages in which the wheat is just as tall as the harvest-ready version. Your definite tell is when the tips of your wheat turns to a darker brown color, as compared to the green it usually sports

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Now that you have your wheat, you can start cooking or bailing away. Make some bread, or some delicious cake. Just don’t make yourself hungry!

Keep in mind that you don’t just have wheat that you can grow. You have melons, pumpkins, carrots, and potatoes. Grow to your heart’s content – and spice up that farm a little. Maybe raise some livestock?