Gifts for George
| Gifts for George | |
|---|---|
| Type | Special Order |
| Board | Special Orders board |
| Giver | Evelyn |
| Time Limit | 28 days |
| Needed | Spring |
| Repeatable | No |
Evelyn wants to prove to George that the town has not forgotten him, and the proof she has in mind is a pile of his favourite vegetable. It is the warmest errand on the town board and one of the few that ends in a scene rather than a payment slip. The notice is tied to Spring, so it appears in one narrow stretch of the year and then disappears until the next one. Finishing it brings a Coffee Maker into the farmhouse, a quiet little machine that leaves a free cup waiting on every one of the mornings that follow. It runs once only, which makes a missed Spring an expensive miss.
The board reads: George thinks no one in town cares about him. I'd like to prove him wrong! A dozen leeks should do the trick... they're his favorite. -Evelyn
Requirements
The leeks have to be gathered while the notice is live. A basket saved from an earlier Spring looks like preparation and does nothing, which is the one rule that catches people here. Leeks picked from the ground and leeks grown deliberately both count, so a packet of Spring Seeds sown on tilled soil is a perfectly good answer when foraging is slow.
Where to look matters more than how long to look. The Mountain and the Backwoods are thick with them, and well over half the spring forage on those two maps comes up as leeks, which makes the short walk past Robin's workshop the single best round. The Bus Stop and the Railroad turn up a fair share, and a farm laid out on the forest or beach maps grows its own spring forage to pick. The town's bins occasionally hold one in Spring as well.
Delivery is unusual: the leeks go onto the stove inside Evelyn and George's house rather than into a bin or a crate outdoors, so the last step needs the front door to be open and someone at home.
The order asks for every item in this table.
| Item | Image | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Leek | 
|
12 |
Rewards
The Coffee Maker is the reason to care. One cup of Coffee appears in it every morning without any beans, a Keg or a trip to the saloon, and a cup of coffee raises walking and riding speed for a short burst. That is a small effect taken alone and a large one taken daily, because the free cup turns the long first walk of the day into a shorter one and stacks with a cooked meal rather than cancelling it. Coffee also sells for a tidy sum through the shipping bin for something that costs nothing to produce, so the machine pays a trickle of gold to a farm that never drinks it.
The gold on the order is respectable for a month of casual foraging, and the scene at George's house is the other half of the reward. George spends most of the game grumbling from his chair, and this is one of the few moments that shows why Evelyn bothers.
Finishing the order pays out all of this.
| Reward | Image |
|---|---|
| 2,000g | - |
| Coffee Maker | 
|
| "Leek Surprise Gift" cutscene at George's House. |
|
Strategy
Build the walk into the normal Spring routine. A loop through the Backwoods to the Mountain on the way to the mines picks up most of what is needed over a fortnight, and anything spare can be eaten or gifted afterwards. Planting Spring Seeds is the insurance policy: a small patch sown on the day the notice is accepted matures well inside the window, and Speed-Gro shortens that further if the notice turned up late in the month.
The posting goes up on a Monday like the rest, and the countdown has already started by then, so a board read in the middle of Spring leaves far less than a full month. Taking it on the first Monday of the season is the difference between a stroll and a scramble.
Two things sink this order. The first is hoarding: a chest of last year's leeks is worthless to the counter. The second is the season itself, because a Spring that ends with the notice unfinished pushes the Coffee Maker a whole year down the line.
Notes
Leeks are worth keeping an eye on for other reasons during the same stretch. One is wanted for the spring foraging collection in the Crafts Room, and Evelyn asks for a single leek by post in her own small errand, so the forage round feeds three separate jobs at once.
George loves leeks as a gift outright, and Harvey, Leah, Linus and Penny are happy to receive one, which gives the surplus somewhere useful to go. Tailoring takes them as well: a leek spooled with a length of Cloth produces a Lime Green Tunic, and the dye pots read it as a white dye.
If the Coffee Maker is ever lost, the Lost Items Shop in the Secret Woods sells a replacement at a steep price.
All Special Orders
Every special order from both boards, with who posts it and how long it runs.