What is the Meadowlands Farm in Stardew Valley?

Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone has been consistently implementing new changes to make the beloved farming simulator even more enjoyable. With update 1.6, players get tons of fresh content, including a brand new farm map, the Meadowlands Farm.

Each farm map in Stardew Valley comes with a unique layout and has its own pros and cons. The Meadowlands Farm is designed as a livestock-oriented farm and is perfect for players who prefer focusing on raising animals rather than crops. This guide covers everything you need to know about Meadowlands Farm in detail and will help you decide if it’s the right one for you.

Updated December 4, 2024, by Usama Ali: The Meadowlands Farm is a new farm map in Stardew Valley, introduced in the 1.6 update. It’s the perfect farm type for players who enjoy raising animals and even comes with a pre-built coop and two chickens, saving you time and money. The farm has a more intricate layout with ponds and forest patches, and many players have found that the farmable area land is smaller compared to the other farm types. If you’re a player who enjoys pastoral life and wants to focus on raising animals, the Meadowlands Farm is an excellent choice.

Meadowlands Farm Layout In Stardew Valley

Like other farm maps in Stardew Valley, the Meadowlands farm comes with a Farmhouse, an abandoned Greenhouse, a body of water, and the Farm Cave.

If you start walking to the left of the farmhouse, you will find a Coop, which comes built-in with the Meadowlands Farm. You can find the ruined Greenhouse near the bottom left fence of the Coop and the Farm Cave directly south of the farmhouse.

To use the Greenhouse, you will first have to repair it by completing the Community Center bundles. On the other hand, the Farm Cave is a small underground location where you can choose to have fruit bats or mushrooms. There are also two intersecting rivers around the farm, where you can go fishing.

When fishing from the river, there is a
40% chance for players to catch a forest pond fish
(i.e. fish that are only found in the Cindersap Forest pond).

Grandpa’s Shrine Location

Even though it’s a bit hidden, the Meadowlands Farm would be incomplete without Grandpa’s Shrine. To get to Grandpa’s Shrine, you will need to cross the plank bridge that is hidden behind a tree near the greenhouse.

Once you cross the bridge, you’ll be in the upper portion of the farm. Here, you can find Grandpa’s Shrine behind another tree. The Shrine is the same as usual, with four candles that light up after you complete Grandpa’s Evaluation.

Warp Totem Location

The Warp Totem on Meadowlands Farm is located on the northern side of the map, behind the farmhouse. If you can’t see it right away, you may need to clear away some obstructing trees and foliage. Once activated, this magical device will allow you to instantly teleport between your farm and other locations, saving you precious time and energy.

Meadowlands Farm Starter Items In Stardew Valley

On all other farm maps, you start with a package of 15 Parsnip Seeds, but things are a bit different with the Meadowlands Farm. This time, you will start your new farm with 15 pieces of Hay and a Coop.

Inside the Coop, you can find two baby chickens that will quickly age and start producing Egg for you every day. The built-in Coop saves you 4,000 gold, 300 wood, and 100 stones, while the two Chicken save another 1,600 gold. Similar to other farm buildings, the Coop is movable and can be placed anywhere on the farm.

Another unique starting resource at the Meadowlands Farm is the Blue Grass. This is a special type of grass that boosts your farm animals’ Friendship Hearts twice as quickly, allowing them to produce higher-quality goods faster.

If you cut down the Blue Grass, it will turn into normal Hay. As such, it’s best to let your animals graze on the chewy blue grass while it is growing directly out of the ground.

How To Get More Blue Grass

Blue Grass naturally sprouts and replenishes during Spring, Summer, and Fall. However, if you want to grow more of it, you will need to craft Blue Grass Starters. The crafting recipe for the Blue Grass Starters can be purchased from Mr. Qi’s Walnut Room on Ginger Island.

After you place a Blue Grass Starter on the farm, it will instantly grow into a patch of Blue Grass. Over time, this patch will gradually spread to the surrounding tiles across the farm.

Best Farming Zone in Meadowlands Farm

Since the tillable area in front of the farmhouse is pretty small, you’ll need to walk through the forest nearby until you reach another big farming zone. The forest is filled with lots of trees and stumps, perfect for collecting Sap and leveling up your Foraging skills quickly.

Beyond the forest is a large area filled with tillable soil where you can plant a variety of crops. This farming zone makes up the majority of the farmable land on the Meadowlands Farm. You can also frequently refill your watering can at one of the ponds if you’re not ready to invest in building a well yet. However, the ponds and forest patches can make it challenging to efficiently plan and manage your crops.

Meadowlands Farm Downsides In Stardew Valley

Even though it comes with exciting perks, the Meadowlands farm has its challenges. For starters, animal farms require more labor and effort to maintain, unlike crop farms where you just need to plant seeds and water your crops.

Unfortunately, the Meadowlands farm isn’t the best farm for growing crops. This is mainly due to two reasons: less tillable land and limited water access.

Farmland Availability

The Meadowlands Farm comes with approximately 2050 tillable tiles, which is quite less compared to other maps, like the Standard Farm (3427 tillable tiles) or the Four Corners Farm (2952 tillable tiles). While not as vast as other farms, there are still suitable areas for planting crops. For instance, the space right below your house provides enough room to set up a basic farm.

Water Access

Besides limited farmland, watering crops in the Meadowlands is quite troublesome. Although there are three ponds scattered across the farm that provide easy access to water, it is time-consuming to run back and forth to them each time you need to refill your watering can.

For this reason, it’s recommended that you set up a well near your crops. A well can be purchased from Robin the Carpenter for 1,000 gold. It requires 75 stones and takes two days to be constructed.