How Farming Works in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Ahead of the Animal Crossing: New Horizons 2.0 update, various leaks suggested farming would appear in the game. We already had the ability to grow one kind of crops. The September 2020 update added pumpkins. But now there are six options for a farm. Here’s how you get one set up.

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons farming begins with Leif.

If you want to start a farm, you need things to grow. You can get seeds and starts in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. While Nook’s Cranny does sell pumpkin starts in October, a more reliable source is Leif.

There are two ways to get plants from Leif. One is to wait until he randomly visits your town. He could stop by during the week with his cart to sell. However, now that Harv’s Island has a co-op section, going there is a more reliable source. If you pay 100,000 bells, Leif will set up a permanent stand. Then, each week he will sell two different sorts of crops. So for example, this week Leif offered pumpkin and sugarcane starts.

Now, there is one other way to get a potential plant. If you spend 1,000 Nook Miles to go on a trip with Kapp’n, you could find some crops. The random island he takes you to on the boat tour could have plants. In this case, you use a shovel to dig the plant up. When you return home, you can plant it where you’d wish.

There are six crops total in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. You can raise carrots, potatoes, pumpkins, sugarcane, tomatoes, and wheat.

2. Raising crops in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Growing plants is the easy part of Animal Crossing: New Horizons farming. Once you have some plants, head to empty land on your island. Go to your inventory, select the crop you want, and choose to plant it. After that, you need to wait three days for it to grow.

While it grows, you can water it once a day. This is optional. In the case of something like pumpkins, it is unnecessary. You will always get one pumpkin from a plant. But with an Animal Crossing: New Horizons crop like carrots or tomatoes, you can get more when you harvest by watering them daily.

Once the crop is fully mature, you will see visible items or produce. Pressing Y will allow you to harvest it. You can then use it while cooking, sell it, or in the case of items like carrots eat it.

3. Cooking in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Once you have grown crops, you can prepare them. First, you need two things. One is a kitchen. The DIY recipe for this comes in the 2,000 Nook Be a Chef! DIY Recipes+ pack at the ABD in the community center. You can then head to a workbench and use 10 Iron Nuggets, 15 Clay, and 30 Stone to build a Stonework Kitchen.

After that, you’ll need some recipes. While you can “discover” some automatically by doing things like catching fish, it’s best to get Basic Cooking Recipes from Nook’s Cranny. This costs 4,980 Bells.

Once you have the kitchen placed and the DIY recipes, you can cook. It functions like a normal workbench. The ingredients must be on hand in your inventory. If they are, you press the button and get food in return.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available for the Nintendo Switch.