Having enough food is one of the most important prerequisites for survival in Minecraft. Being sustainable is also important. While you can rely on meat, it always requires some manual work. On the other hand, crops grow on their own! Two vegetables you will find on your journey through the world are carrots and potatoes. Both in Minecraft and in real life, they are delicious foods you should definitely grow in your world. Not only can you replenish your food supply with them, but you can also do some other exciting things. And with fully automatic fields, you’ll never have to worry about farming again.
Why Carrots and Potatoes in Minecraft are Essential for Food and Trade
While wheat has been part of Minecraft since the alpha, other crops were introduced gradually. After the release version, carrots and potatoes were added, filling an important gap in Minecraft’s food chain. This allowed players to diversify their fields and grow significantly more food.
Minecraft Carrots: Locations, Uses, and Trading Options
Carrots are a great food source in Minecraft. They can primarily be found in village fields, but sometimes you will also get carrots when killing zombies or one of their variations. Carrots are also loot in various chests, including sunken shipwrecks or outposts.
You can plant them like all other crops. They are not only your food source but also necessary for breeding pigs and rabbits. You can also collect carrots and trade them with villagers later. This is one of the best trading options for many emeralds, especially with a discount.
There are also three crafting recipes. One is a carrot on a stick, allowing you to ride pigs. They are also an ingredient in rabbit stew. Finally, you can use gold nuggets to create a golden carrot – one of the best foods in the game!
Minecraft Potatoes: Cultivation, Loot, and Their Role in Trade
Potatoes are similar. They can also be found in villages, and zombies sometimes drop them as loot. They can also be found in shipwrecks and outposts.
When you grow potatoes, you sometimes get a poisonous potato. You can simply discard it as it has no use. You should definitely not eat it! Otherwise, you can also breed pigs with normal potatoes and trade them with villagers for emeralds.
In the furnace, you can make a baked potato, which is incredibly tasty and filling! This baked potato is also part of the rabbit stew recipe.
Building Guide for an Automatic Potato and Carrot Farm
Unlike the wheat farm we introduced in another article (Build an Automatic Minecraft Wheat Farm: Unlimited Wheat with Minimal Effort) , this time we’re building a slightly more advanced farm. The advantage is that it works completely automatically! We’re enlisting the help of villagers. You can build the farm with water, but that’s up to you.
Villagers can take on the job of a farmer, effectively taking care of themselves. We build the farm so that the villagers do the work for us, and we intercept the products in between! This automatic farm works for the crops presented here, as well as for beetroot and wheat. For wheat, you get bread directly.
Building Materials
- Building materials
- 2 Composters
- 2 Light sources
- 2 Buckets of water
- Potatoes and Carrots + Hoe
- 2 Trapdoors
- 4 Hoppers + Chest
- 4 Minecart with Hopper + Rails
- 3 Villagers
- 1 Job Station (e.g., Fletching Table)
Step-by-Step Instructions
The foundation for this farm is two squares measuring 9x9 blocks. Depending on capacity and use, you can expand these. You can arrange new farms in a larger rectangle or build them on top of each other. The principle of our farm is simple and relates to one field with carrots and one with potatoes.
We also lay out these fields. First, you need to provide a water source. Dig a hole in the center of the 9x9 field and place the water there. Above it goes the composter, which will later serve as a job station for the villager. Above the composter, place a light source, in our case, a glowstone. After that, you can till the fields. Make sure to plant only one type of crop on each side; otherwise, the villagers’ inventory will become confused.
Next, place the collection mechanism between the two chambers. First, use the chest and the four hoppers and sink them into the ground. This will collect all the excess carrots and potatoes.
Filling the gap is a bit more complex. This is because a third villager will be placed between the chambers, whom the other two will want to feed. As players, we want to intercept the food. For this, we use stacked minecart with hoppers. First, place a rail over the hopper, position the minecart, and then remove the rail. Then repeat this one block higher. When you break the block below, the minecart will fall onto the other and form a sort of wall that collects all items. Place a trapdoor above it and repeat on the other opening.
Finally, you need to build a small chamber in between where the third villager will be. Place a job station for the villager on the ground between the hoppers. We, for instance, used a fletching table.
Lastly, you just need to bring the villagers into their respective chambers. They should not have fixed jobs and will take the job stations directly. If you have two farmers and an additional villager in the middle, you can safely trade with them, ensuring their job doesn’t change.
Wait until the carrots and potatoes grow. The villagers will then harvest them and store them in their internal inventory. You can also fill this yourself by throwing them some stacks. When they notice the middle villager is hungry, they will share their food with him. But thanks to the minecart with hoppers, these will be intercepted and sorted into the chest!
Conclusion
Carrots and potatoes are not just an important food source but also wonderful opportunities to obtain many emeralds from villagers. With such an automatic farm, you hit two birds with one stone! The villagers do all the work for you. In the end, you just need to collect the harvest. Secure endless food and trading goods on your own server. Rent your Minecraft server and harvest without interruption!
