How to Start your Canning Business 101

When you live off the land you wouldn’t want any food to go to waste. Luckily you can now preserve many kinds of fruits & vegetables by canning them in jars with the Cooking Skill, a new ability added in The Sims 4 Cottage Living. Your Sims can make up to 16 different jams, custards and veggies. Use them in a picnic or try selling canned goods for profit.

Planning for Canning

First you’ll need to start growing your own produce in your garden. You’ll be able to use regular harvestables like Blueberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Chocoberries, Tomatoes or Apples, just to name a few examples. For oversized crops you can choose Mushrooms, Aubergines, crops of Lettuce, Pumpkins and Watermelons. Now all you need are chickens to lay eggs and a cow for their milk to make your own fresh custard. 

Tip: If you want to go all out with the canning business, you’ll need to find Cowplant berries to make a special Cowberry Jam with mootastic side effects.

How to Start Canning

Now it’s time to preserve the delicious crops you’ve grown in your garden. Click on a stove and choose the canning interaction to open up the recipe menu. More recipes will become available the higher your Sims’ Cooking skill is.

	Mushroom Conserve Ingredients: Any mushroom
	Tomato Sauce Ingredients: 1 tomato
	Meat Substitute Ingredients: Any mushroom, aubergine, soybean, or faux meat cubes
	Apple Jam Ingredients: 1 apple, 1 sugar
	Raspberry Jam Unlocks at cooking level 2 Ingredients: 1 raspberry, 1 sugar
	Strawberry Jam Unlocks at cooking level 2 Ingredients: 1 strawberry, sugar
	Blueberry Jam Unlocks at cooking level 2 Ingredients: 1 blueberry, 1 sugar
	Blackberry Jam Unlocks at cooking level 2 Ingredients: 1 blackberry, 1 sugar
	Custard Unlocks at cooking level 3 Ingredients: 1 egg, 1 milk
	Mayonnaise Unlocks at cooking level 3 Ingredients: 1 egg
	Chocolate Syrup Unlocks at cooking level 3 Ingredients: 1 chocoberry
	Aubergine Conserve Unlocks at cooking level 4 Ingredients: Small, medium or oversized aubergine
	Watermelon Conserve Unlocks at cooking level 4 Ingredients: Small, medium or oversized watermelon
	Lettuce Conserve Unlocks at cooking level 4 Ingredients: Small, medium or oversized lettuce
	Oversized Mushroom Conserve Unlocks at cooking level 4 Ingredients: Small, medium or oversized mushroom
	Pumpkin Conserve Unlocks at cooking level 4 Ingredients: Small, medium or oversized pumpkin
	Cowberry Jam Unlocks at cooking level 6. Eating this makes your Sim embarrassed. Why you’d ask? Now they got the Moos. Ingredients: 1 Cowplant Berry, 1 sugar

Where to Sell Your Canned Goods

When the Finchwick Fair is active you can sell your canned goods at the Market Stall. This will give you a 10% selling bonus. The Finchwick Fair starts every Saturday at 3:30 PM, at the Finchwick town square.

Some other possibilities depend on what packs you have installed, but here are some examples:

• Set for sale in your own retail store (Get to Work)
• Place your own market table to sell from there (Get to Work, City Living, Eco Lifestyle, Jungle Adventure)

What else can I do with Canned Items?

If you don’t plan on selling your canned goods you can choose to use them yourself. Your Sim can put them in a picnic basket and take them with you for a nice meal in the great outdoors. Next to that it is also possible to use them as ingredients for your (gourmet) cooking recipes or to replace ingredients the recipe normally calls for. Some examples of recipes using canned ingredients are:

• Fruit pies using jams i.e. blueberry jam for blueberry pie
• Chocolate scones using chocolate syrup
• Jam crumpets using jams i.e. strawberry jam for strawberry jam crumpets