Growing crops is a really common theme for board games—some games organized solely around farming like Three Sisters (below), others using it as a base for something broader like Viticulture or Harvest, still others having agriculture as only one of many different mechanics within a larger scheme like Black Forest. Gamers seem to really enjoy simulating the experience of planting and watering and harvesting. Growing food is not an easy task and definitely not a quick one either. Most games that involve cultivation require multiple turns and steps to get to a harvest. There’s frustration along the way, as well as planning and excitement when it actually works.

I once heard someone talk about cultivating people. The surface level of that feels a bit manipulative, like somehow you’re subtly making people grow into something you want? Uncomfortable. But the idea of cultivating the ground we walk on, that feels right. Friendships grow slowly much of the time, people opening up over time spent, feeding the roots of what they will be together in the future. When you cultivate the soil, whether in the real world, relationships, or in a board game, you’re tending to it, turning it, amending it to make it richer, watering, encouraging pollinators, etc. You’re making the conditions healthy for growth. And listen, don’t we all need that?

We at Free Parking have already played host to countless 1st dates, 5th dates, birthdays, anniversaries, family reunions, heartfelt conversations, reconnections, even a wake. Making our ground safe and nourishing for y’all is our hope and our honor.

Alice C, board game librarian

Play Three Sisters

Three Sisters is an excellent and complex roll-and write game about raising crops and also math. Seriously, how do you feel about those bubble sheets for standardized tests in school? It’s like that, a bit, but about plants.

Players have two farm scoresheets in front of them which have two primary areas: the Garden and Everything Else. In the center of the table is a bulletin-board with dice. Those dice are rolled and placed on to the notes on the bulletin board. On a turn, a player will draft one of those dice which allows them to plant or water in one section of their Garden. The bulletin-board note from which they drafted the die will also give them an additional action in the Everything Else areas—they might fill in a box helping them to build a seed spreader which makes planting more efficient or they might fill in one in their perennial garden which then allows them to fill in an additional box in their orchard. You begin to see how actions can build on each other. After each player has drafted a die, all players then use the lowest die left on the board to take the same garden and bulletin-board actions with it.

The game is based around the indigenous American tradition of planting corn, beans, and squash together in mounds. Players cultivate their three sisters in concert with the rest of their farms, chaining actions to make everything more productive. It’s incredibly satisfying and might burn your brain a little, in the best possible way.

Alice C, board game librarian

Try our Veggie Burger

Our veggie burger is house-made with black beans and quinoa, tender and flavorful. It’s also vegan, if you can believe it! It comes with traditional burger toppings of crisp lettuce and onion, juicy tomato and pickles, and our creamy signature sauce. But wait, there’s more! You can swap out those toppings for the Grippos and slaw of our Boardwalk Burger or for the caramelized onions, croquettes, mushrooms, and swiss cheese of our Mushroom Swiss Burger. (Shown here with our delicious mac and cheese, without bacon.)

Bring a friend or two to play Three Sisters and have a veggie burger to fuel your brain!