The plan was relatively simple: get Latakia, my Yeoman, to Artisan level, so I can make level 30 food, which would benefit my warden Hiltibrant. I already knew from him that getting Artisan proficiency required a quest. And since the Cook’s Guild is in Michel Delving, I knew I was up for a travel there. Which is fine: as I’ve said numerous times, I love the shire.

However, the quest required me to cook several expert-level food items, and one of them was a strawberry pie. And the strawberries were not sold by vendors, but rather farmed by a farmer. At artisan level. That came as a bit of a surprise, because so far, cooked food had only required the same or lower levels of farmer’s supplies. And farming tends to be a slower leveling than cooking, too, so it always lagged behind for me. I took that as a challenge though! So I farmed, and farmed, and farmed… finished journeyman level, progressed through expert level… then I realized I didn’t get any experience any more.

Uhoh. There’s also a quest to progress to artisan level for farmers! And, that of course sent me from Michel Delving to Hobbiton! Not that that’s a huge distance, but still… for that I hadn’t been prepared. Also, from now on, I’ll probably have to visit Hobbiton more often, because I’ll need superior fields, which don’t grow near Bree. Oh well. The fact that there aren’t that many spots to do superior farming was obvious from how crowded it was:

It's crowded at the commons!

So, I went and planted some crops that I needed for the farming quest. Then, I went around to quest NPCs to present them my produce, and show that I was worthy of the artisan farmer title. Then, I finally could plant the strawberries. Then, I went back to Michel Delving and made the strawberry pie. Then, I went around to quest NPCs again (other ones this time, though) to present them my food, and show that I was worthy of the artisan cook title. Then, I was done. *phew*

All in all, a good night’s work.