Lean Times
by orlouge
Lean Times makes food harder to come by through slower crops, rarer animal breeding and fewer spawns, and it is a server-side only mod for Fabric and NeoForge.
What it does
Lean Times changes how food is gathered in survival. Farmland with crops above it can occasionally turn back into dirt, crops can be destroyed or stop growing, and sweet berry bushes grow more slowly and sometimes fail to grow or vanish. Kelp and other vertically growing plants start at a higher initial age, and their growth until replacement is set to 25. Animals breed more slowly, with a longer cooldown after each child, and fewer animals and fish appear during world generation and after it. Fishing takes longer as well.
Chickens lay fewer eggs over time, and each egg has a lower chance of hatching a chicken. Honey restores one hunger point, and glow berries have a 5% chance of applying poison. A configuration file lets the server owner adjust these changes. Only the server needs the mod, so players join without installing anything.
The mod depends on Fabric API and is published for Fabric and NeoForge with files for 1.21.8. It is not open source; it is released as All rights reserved, and public links to its source code and wiki exist.
Key features
Slower crops and berries
Crops stop growing or are destroyed at times, and sweet berry bushes grow slowly and occasionally fail to appear.
Farmland that degrades
Farmland under growing crops can occasionally revert to dirt, so fields need attention.
Slower animal breeding
Breeding cooldowns grow longer after each child, and fewer animals spawn during world generation.
Adjustable settings
A configuration file lets server owners change how strongly each food mechanic applies.
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Requirements
Dependencies declared by the latest file for each loader.
Required 1
Use cases
Who it’s for: Server owners running survival worlds where food should be scarcer. Players join a server that runs the mod without installing anything on their own side.
How it compares
Failed Breeding is a server-side only Fabric mod, released under All rights reserved, with files for 1.20 – 1.21.8. Berry tweaks works on Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt for 1.21.4 and requires the server, with the client optional, under the MIT License.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lean Times | Fabric and NeoForge | 1.21.8 | Server-side only | 2025-12-01 |
| Failed Breeding | Fabric | 1.20 – 1.21.8 | Server-side only | 2025-10-20 |
| Berry tweaks | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt | 1.21.4 | Server required, client optional | 2025-01-07 |
Questions
Does Lean Times need Fabric API?
Do players need the mod on their client?
Which game version does Lean Times support?
In the catalog
Lean Times is one of 6,151 Food mods on ModsFinder, and one of 2,715 Food mods for Fabric. 17,695 mods support Minecraft 1.21.8.
More from orlouge
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What the author says
This is a configurable mod that makes the following changes: - Farmland with crops above occasionally turns to dirt. The crops are not destroyed when this happens, but they do stop growing. - Sweet berries grow slower and occasionally fail to grow and disappear. - Animals grow slower and their breeding cooldown gets…
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/lean-times
- Owner
- orlouge
- Published
- 2025-12-01
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2025-12-01
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15