My dCrops Farming Journal #1 – Expanding the Farm & Chasing the Top 50 🌾

1 day ago

dCrops Farming Journal

Welcome to the first edition of my dCrops Farming Journal!

I've been playing dCrops on the Hive blockchain for quite some time. My farm is already producing crops, my fruit trees are growing, and several processes are running automatically.

But recently, I decided to take things a little more seriously.

Instead of simply harvesting crops and collecting rewards, I want to track my progress, analyze investments, improve production, and find out how profitable my virtual farming business can become.

And, of course, have some fun along the way!

🌱 Farm Progress – A Big Investment Week

This has been a particularly active period for my farm.

I've significantly increased my CROP holdings, expanded my seed collection, unlocked more cooking recipes, and continued building my production infrastructure.

Here are my latest recorded figures:

Farm Statistic	Current Status
CROP held in-game	171,566
CROP held outside the game	44,528
Total directly held CROP	216,094
SWAP.HIVE:CROP liquidity pool shares	5,588
Holding Rewards Rank	#69
Latest recorded 15-day CROP POWER average	255,272.58
Quest Reward Chest Size	28 items
Recently completed Quest Chest	27 items

The liquidity pool shares are tracked separately from my directly held CROP tokens.

One important detail: the Holding Rewards ranking uses a 15-day average of CROP POWER, so my recent investments are not fully reflected in the displayed ranking yet.

Which brings me to my next goal...

🏆 Road to the Top 50

Yesterday, October 25, I was ranked #75 on the dCrops Holding Rewards leaderboard.

Today?

Rank #69!

That's six positions gained in just one day.

My latest recorded estimated Holding Reward was approximately 0.094 HIVE per day, with the displayed APY at 7.11%.

I'm expecting my ranking and rewards to change as the 15-day average catches up with my increased holdings. However, the final result also depends on other players and the overall reward distribution.

My next milestone is clear:

Break into the Top 50!

I'll track my position in every future journal entry.

🌾 New Seed Investment – Epic Rice

One of my latest purchases was an Epic Rice Seed from the Beta Edition.

I paid 16 SWAP.HIVE for it, funded by selling some of my other Hive-Engine tokens.

The Rice Seed has some interesting characteristics:

Summer crop
Seven-day growth time
Produces two Rice
Keeps producing until the season ends

I've already planted it!

What makes Rice particularly interesting is that I can use it for cooking rather than simply selling the harvested crop.

For example, Rice can become Plain Rice, which can then be used in Fried Rice.

That creates an entire production chain:

Rice → Plain Rice → Fried Rice

Of course, cooking requires additional ingredients, equipment, time, and GAS.

Whether this production chain is more profitable than selling the raw ingredients is something I still need to investigate.

🍎 My Established Farm Production

My farm isn't starting from scratch.

I already own two fruit trees:

Apple Tree and Peach Tree

Both have been planted for quite some time and are actively producing fruit.

My collection also includes a variety of seasonal vegetables, herbs, and other crops, including strawberries, potatoes, carrots, peas, tomatoes, and many more.

The recent Rice purchase is an addition to an established farm rather than the beginning of a new one.

One of my longer-term goals is to make better use of these harvests through cooking and processing.

👨‍🍳 Expanding the Kitchen

I've recently unlocked several cooking recipes by burning their corresponding recipe NFTs.

My learned recipes now include:

Plain Rice
Bread
Apple Pie
Caramel Popcorn
Fried Rice
Hashbrowns
Smoky Bean Soup
Toasted Sweet Potato

The recipe system is interesting because cooking generates experience points, while burning additional recipe NFTs can increase the maximum level.

I've already used a second Bread recipe NFT to raise its maximum level.

However, unlocking a recipe doesn't mean I can immediately cook it.

Some dishes require equipment I don't own yet.

The Oven Problem

An Oven would unlock several useful cooking opportunities, including Bread and Apple Pie.

Unfortunately, the Oven Blueprint is currently expensive.

The latest offers I found were:

Payment Method	Blueprint Price
SWAP.HIVE	140
CROP	60,000

The historical trade prices have varied considerably, with some sales much cheaper and others significantly more expensive.

I'm considering purchasing an Oven Blueprint, but I still need to evaluate whether the additional production opportunities justify the investment.

The building itself also requires resources and seven days of construction time.

Fortunately, resource materials can sometimes be obtained from Quest Reward Chests.

🎁 Quest Rewards – Bigger Chests!

I recently completed an entire quest series and opened a Reward Chest containing 27 items.

Among the rewards I remember receiving were:

Salt
Mystery Seed
Speed-Gro
Ferti-Plus

Unfortunately, I didn't record the complete contents before opening the chest.

That's something I'll improve for future journal entries!

After increasing my CROP holdings, my displayed Reward Chest Size has already grown to 28 items.

The published chest drop rates are particularly interesting:

Reward Category	Drop Rate
Boosters & Items	70%
Resource NFTs	30%

This makes larger chests useful not only for consumables but potentially for obtaining more construction resources.

Of course, rare materials such as Gold Ore remain difficult to obtain.

I also use Mystery Seeds regularly. They plant a random crop directly on the farm without giving me a permanent seed NFT.

My latest Mystery Seed produced Basil.

⚙️ Automation – What Is My Farm Actually Producing?

A large part of my daily dCrops routine is handled through Hive Automation Hub.

That's convenient, but it also creates a funny problem:

Sometimes I don't even know what my farm is producing!

Recently, I discovered that Strawberry Jam was being produced automatically.

Apparently, my virtual farming business has been making jam without informing its CEO.

The recipe requires:

Two Strawberries
One Sugar

Sugar is an important cost factor because I currently don't own a Windmill to produce it myself.

I'm planning to monitor these production chains more closely, especially when ingredients need to be purchased.

I've also noticed that some inventory information shown by external automation tools may be inaccurate, so I'll use the actual dCrops inventory as my main reference.

🍓 Farm Fail of the Week – Strawberry Jam Skincare

Here's my favorite discovery of the week.

While investigating Strawberry Jam, I found marketplace listings that were approximately two years old.

That doesn't prove nobody ever buys jam, but it certainly doesn't inspire confidence in the market demand at those prices!

So I've been thinking...

Maybe I should stop trying to sell Strawberry Jam as food.

Perhaps it's time to launch a new business:

Chaosmagic23's Blockchain Strawberry Skincare!

100% virtual. Naturally decentralized. Probably sticky.

If the jam won't sell, at least my farmer can use it as a face mask.

Sometimes you just have to diversify your business model! 😂

📈 Investment Strategy – What's Next?

My current priorities are:

1. Grow CROP POWER

I'm tracking how my larger CROP holdings affect my ranking, daily HIVE rewards, and Quest Reward Chest size.

2. Improve production

I want to expand my cooking and processing capabilities without spending more on ingredients than the resulting products are worth.

3. Watch the equipment market

An Oven is a potential next investment, while a Windmill remains especially interesting because it could help with Flour and Sugar production.

4. Track actual profitability

This is important.

Shares, CROP tokens, HIVE rewards, NFT market prices, and liquidity pool positions are different things.

I don't want to confuse estimated asset values with realized earnings.

Over time, I'd like to build a clearer picture of how much my farm earns and what the investments actually return.

📅 Goals for the Next Journal

For the next edition, I'll be watching:

My progress toward Holding Rewards Rank #50
Changes in daily HIVE rewards
Further increases in Reward Chest Size
The first results from my new Rice production
Cooking and equipment investments
Any unexpected discoveries from my automated farm

I'll also try to record future chest rewards and production changes more systematically.

🌻 Final Thoughts

What I enjoy about dCrops is that it's more than just planting and harvesting.

There's resource management, NFT collecting, crafting, cooking, market trading, liquidity provision, and plenty of strategic decisions.

The more I explore the game, the more systems I discover.

This journal will document both the successes and the mistakes, including the occasional questionable business opportunity involving strawberry-based cosmetics.

If you're playing dCrops too, I'd love to hear about your farming strategy.

Do you prefer investing in more seeds, increasing CROP POWER, or expanding your production equipment?

Let me know in the comments!

Until next time...

Happy farming, and remember: There is no Order without Chaos! 🌾

This is a personal gaming journal, not financial advice. Token prices, game rewards, and NFT values can change.

Useful links:

#dcrops #hive #hivegaming #play2earn #blockchaingaming