Keep Bellies Full Before You Chase Big Harvests
In Manor Lords, early food can feel weirdly punishing, so if this part is frustrating, you are not doing anything "wrong." You can have berries and meat in storage and still see unmet food needs if market distribution is patchy. The big concept is food variety, which means different food types available through the market. Variety boosts approval, and approval drives monthly population change. Early on, play it safe: lock in a couple of reliable food sources instead of betting everything on crops, using foraging, hunting, and food-producing backyard extensions on Burgage Plots (your family homes).
Get a Granary up early and keep it staffed, then confirm your marketplace has enough active food stalls. If food is "in town" but people are still unhappy, it is often a logistics/distribution problem, not a raw production problem. Coach move: if things feel stuck, pause new construction for a month, assign families to Granaries/market support, and let distribution catch up before expanding again.
Simple Crop Plan That Will Not Crash
Farming in Manor Lords is seasonal, and it is very easy to overbuild fields too soon. Use the fertility overlay before placing fields, then match crops to the soil. Rotate fields and use fallow (resting a field for a season), or alternate crop types so fertility can recover instead of forcing the same crop nonstop. Keep field count modest until you have enough workers, because too much land with too little labor can leave fields unfinished before winter.
A practical new-player rhythm: lean on berries, meat, and backyard food in year one, then add small fields as a supplement. Expand farmland only after labor and transport feel stable. Before winter, check three things: Granary staffing, whether market food stalls stay stocked, and whether your current Burgage requirements are actually being met. That combo helps prevent starvation spirals and keeps village growth steadier.