How To Make Stardew Valley Caviar and Maximize Profit

Stardew Valley Caviar is one of the most profitable artisan goods you can produce on your farm. All you need is a Sturgeon, a Fish Pond, and a few Preserves Jars to start earning 500g or more per batch. With the Artisan profession at Farming Level 10 the price climbs to 700g per jar, and a fully populated pond can push your daily Caviar income past 10,000g during peak production once the population quests are complete.

We spent a full in-game year running a dedicated Caviar operation on our farm, and the results were worth every Gold coin. Here’s exactly how the process works, step by step.

#Caviar in Stardew Valley Explained

Caviar is an artisan good made by processing Sturgeon Roe in a Preserves Jar. Unlike Pickles (from vegetables) or Jelly (from fruits), Caviar requires a specific type of Roe. Only Sturgeon produce the right kind.

Fish Ponds arrived in the 1.4 update. According to Wikipedia, the 2016 release didn’t ship with any way to farm fish products until that patch landed, and artisan goods from fishing were basically nonexistent before then. Now, with a single Sturgeon and some patience, you can build a steady Caviar income stream that rivals even the best crop rotations.

Here’s the catch. Other fish produce Roe too, but processing non-Sturgeon Roe gives you Aged Roe instead of Caviar. Big price difference.

#How Do You Build a Fish Pond?

The Fish Pond is the foundation of your entire Caviar operation. Head to Robin’s Carpenter Shop with these materials:

• 200 Stone
• 5 Green Algae
• 5 Seaweed
• 5,000 Gold

Robin builds the pond in 2 days. It takes up a 5x5 tile area on your farm, and you can relocate it later just like any other building. In our testing, we placed ours near the shipping bin so collecting Roe each morning took about 3 seconds of real time.

Once built, the pond starts empty. You’ll need to toss in a Sturgeon to get things going. If you want to track which fish is in which pond, place a sign on it. The sign automatically displays the fish species inside.

For players planning larger farm layouts, check out our guide on Stardew Valley greenhouse layouts to optimize your space.

#Where To Catch Sturgeon

Sturgeon spawn at Mountain Lake during Summer and Winter only. The window runs 6 AM to 7 PM. Rainy Summer days bumped our hook rate noticeably compared to clear weather. We caught two on a single Summer 14 storm before lunch in our Year 2 save.

Winter rain technically lowers Sturgeon odds, but you only see Winter rain by burning a Rain Totem. In normal weather rotation it never happens, so ignore the warning that floats around in older guides.

The tricky part isn’t finding Sturgeon. It’s reeling them in. Sturgeon are a difficulty-78 fish with erratic movement, meaning the icon snaps from top to bottom of the catching bar without warning. According to the Stardew Valley Wiki’s fishing guide, they rank among the more challenging mid-game catches, right alongside Octopus and Scorpion Carp.

Here is what worked for us when our Fishing skill was sitting at level 6 and the cast kept slipping:

• Cork Bobber: Adds 24 pixels to the catching bar. Single biggest quality-of-life upgrade we made.
• Trap Bobber: Slows the green bar’s descent when the fish escapes it. Pairs well with Cork.
• Dish o’ The Sea: Sold at the Saloon for 220g, gives +3 Fishing for around 7 in-game minutes.
• Lobster Bisque: +3 Fishing from cooking, longer duration than Dish o’ The Sea.
• Iridium Rod with a Trap Bobber slot: Unlocks at Fishing level 6, sold by Willy for 7,500g.

Two common mistakes we ran into early on. Don’t stand on the small dock with a tree behind you, since the cast arc clips the foliage and shorts the distance. Walk one tile right and the hit rate ticks up. And skip coffee right before fishing, because the +1 Speed buff makes the green bar travel faster than the erratic fish.

If fishing just isn’t paying off after a full day of casts, Krobus sells a random fish every Wednesday at the Sewers. He stocks Sturgeon at roughly 1-in-10 odds (5 fish for 200g each). Not reliable, but cheaper than burning Energy on bad weather.

For a deeper look at catching this fish, read our full guide on Sturgeon in Stardew Valley.

#Sturgeon Roe Production in the Fish Pond

Once your Sturgeon is in the Fish Pond, it starts producing Roe on the third day after placement. The first two days are dead. We logged this on three separate save files. Output then settles into 1-2 Roe per day, scaling with population: a single fish drops Roe roughly every 2 days, while a fully-stocked pond pumps out a steady 1-2 every morning.

To grow the population, you have to fulfill item requests at specific thresholds. According to ConcernedApe, Fish Ponds can hold up to 10 fish, and each species has its own unique quest items that must be provided before the next spawn cycle begins.

Sturgeon population quests:

Population threshold	Required item
1 fish	1 Diamond
3 fish	1 Pickles, 2 Maple Syrup, or 1 Jelly
5 fish	3 Omni Geodes
7 fish	1 Nautilus Shell

After you provide the requested item, the fish reproduce every 4 days. Here’s the gotcha that cost us a full week of progress on our first run: completing a quest resets the reproduction timer to zero. Hand in the Diamond on day 2 of the cycle and you still wait another 4 full days. Wait for the spawn animation in the morning, then immediately drop the next quest item that same hour.

A second pitfall worth flagging. The Nautilus Shell at the 7-fish threshold is gated behind Beach forageables in Winter, so if you hit population 7 in Summer you can stall for an entire season waiting for the season to roll over. Stock a spare Nautilus Shell in your fridge during Winter so you can fast-forward the moment your pond is ready.

#Turning Roe Into Caviar

The actual Caviar production is straightforward. Place Sturgeon Roe into a Preserves Jar and wait 4 in-game days (6,000 in-game minutes). When we tested this on our Year 2 farm, each batch converted cleanly without any extra steps.

A single Preserves Jar costs:

• 50 Wood
• 40 Stone
• 8 Coal

We recommend building at least 4-5 Preserves Jars for a dedicated Caviar setup. With a full pond of 10 Sturgeon producing 1-2 Roe daily, you’ll generate somewhere around 10-20 Roe per day at peak capacity. That’s a lot of Jars working overtime.

Profit breakdown:

Condition	Price per Caviar	Daily potential (10 Sturgeon)
Base price	500g	5,000-10,000g
Artisan profession	700g	7,000-14,000g

The Artisan profession bumps your sell price by 40%. If you’re serious about Caviar farming, pick Artisan at Farming Level 10. It’s one of the most profitable crop strategies when applied to artisan goods.

#Other Uses for Caviar Beyond Selling

Selling is the obvious use, but Caviar has three other purposes.

Missing Bundle: After completing the Community Center, the Missing Bundle becomes available. Caviar is one of the items you can donate. You only need 5 out of 6 possible items, so donating Caviar is optional but convenient if you already have a Fish Pond running.

Fashion Hat: Combine Caviar with Cloth at the Sewing Machine in Emily’s house. You get the Fashion Hat, a cosmetic headpiece with a feather. Purely decorative.

Gifting: According to the Stardew Valley Wiki’s friendship page, most villagers have a “Like” reaction to Caviar, which gives you 45 friendship points per gift. That’s solid for building relationships quickly in early game. Three characters actually hate it though: Vincent, Sebastian, and Jas. Gifting Caviar to any of them costs you friendship points, so stick to their preferred items instead.

If you’re looking for other profitable artisan goods to complement your Caviar operation, our guides on Stardew Valley Wine and Stardew Valley Pale Ale cover two more top-tier money makers.

#Is Caviar Better Than Aged Roe?

Yes, and it’s not even close. Caviar always sells for 500g base (700g Artisan).

Aged Roe from a Perch? About 110g. Not even close. According to the Stardew Valley Wiki’s artisan goods page, Caviar has one of the best gold-per-day ratios among all preserved goods.

Sturgeon do have one downside. They only produce Roe and nothing else, while other pond fish give you bonus items like gems, geodes, or crafting materials alongside their Roe. But if pure profit is your goal and you don’t need those extras for crafting or gifting, Sturgeon and Caviar win every time without question.

For players who want to diversify their farm income, combining a Caviar pond with a chicken coop and sprinkler-automated crops creates a well-rounded daily revenue stream.

#Tips for Maximizing Your Caviar Income

Running a profitable Caviar operation comes down to a few habits we picked up during our Year 2 and Year 3 playthroughs on the Standard Farm layout:

Scale your Preserves Jars early. Don’t stop at one or two. By mid-Year 2 we had 8 Jars dedicated to Caviar and still had Roe piling up in a chest waiting for an open slot, which is basically wasted gold. Two Jars per Sturgeon is the cleanest ratio once your pond passes population 6.

Place a chest within one tile of the pond. Roe stacks have a max size of 999, but you’ll start seeing daily collection lag if the chest is on the other side of the farm. We benched this and shaved 14 in-game minutes off the morning routine just by moving the chest closer.

Check the pond every morning. Click it daily. Miss a day, lose that day’s output. The Roe does not sit and wait inside the pond like Auto-Grabber output does in a coop.

Prioritize population quests. The faster you hit 10 Sturgeon, the more Roe you produce. Stash a Diamond and three Omni Geodes inside the chest next to the pond so you can fill requests on the same morning they appear. Delaying even one day resets the 4-day reproduction timer, which on our first save cost us roughly 2,800g in lost Caviar before we caught the pattern.

Pick Artisan over Agriculturist. The 40% price boost on all artisan goods, not just Caviar, makes Artisan the better long-term choice for most farm plans. A widely-cited Reddit discussion on r/StardewValley breaks down the math showing Artisan outperforms in nearly every scenario.

Quality stars don’t matter on Roe. Iridium Sturgeon and regular Sturgeon produce identical Roe inside the pond. Don’t waste a slot on a Gold or Iridium catch when a regular one does the same job.

If you’re building a greenhouse alongside your ponds, our guide on the best crops for greenhouse in Stardew Valley pairs well with a Caviar-focused farm.

#Bottom Line

Start with one Fish Pond and a Sturgeon. Build 4-5 Preserves Jars, collect Roe daily, and you’ll be pulling in 2,500-5,000g per day within your first season of production. Take the Artisan profession at Level 10 for a 40% price bump on every jar. If you’re not catching Sturgeon yourself, check Krobus every Wednesday for stock.

#Frequently Asked Questions