Although it made an appearance in TS1 in the "On Holiday/Vacation" EP, it is in Seasons that fishing has really come into its own. No longer requiring a pier, any pool if big enough and deep enough is suitable for fishing. It can also be a very popular group activity.

The ponds will freeze over in cold weather. I have known ponds to be frozen even halfway during Spring with some of my sim families.

Experience is rewarded by skill badges. Each badge awards a different form of bait or lure to catch fish. Badgeless fishersims can only use worms and are most likely to catch boots. Different baits and lures attract different types of fish and the higher the type of badge, the greater the success of getting a catch.

Boots can be sold, mounted on the wall or even be puréed in the juicer. Yes, you heard me. The effects are somewhat bizarre. Try it and see.

Fish can be sold, mounted on the wall, grilled or cooked. They can be left on the ground, but that can attract penguins or if you've got "Pets", the neighborhood stray cats might pop over for dinner. The value of these meals grilled or cooked with fish is higher than conventional meals and a sim's hunger need bar fills up more quickly. New fish-based meals are also available, depending upon the cooking level of your sim.

There is little point in there being an expansion about the four seasons with appropriate seasonanal effects without there being gardening. For the old timers of us out there who remember "Unleashed", that was our introduction to sim-gardening. Personally, this was something I really enjoyed from TS1 days and "Seasons" for TS2 has brought it back and with a major overhaul.

Preparing the land is important to vegetable plot success. Bags of fertiliser are good but compost is better. Probably for the first time around, sims will be using fertiliser bags but by the second time they are planting, their compost bin should have enough to help prepare the vegetable plots. Household waste and old newspapers help the compost bin to fill up.

Time spent preparing the ground goes towards getting that next gardening badge.

Obviously, if you don't plant your seeds, you will not get any vegetables. As I pointed out in the Spring and Summer parts, different seasons are better for different crops. Springtime for Peppers, Strawberries and Eggplants and Summertime for Tomatoes, Pole beans and Cucumbers. Timing it that the successive season is when they are harvested also is beneficial.

Again, planting is time spent towards getting that gardening badge.

If you move the cursor over the plant, an icon will show you how healthy it is and whether its health is steady, going up or going down. This is a very useful indicator as to what plants need priority attention.

I am yet to find gophers among my vegetable plots but your crops are under threat from other new foes, and as you can see in this image, the worst of which is the weather.

The frequency your vegetables need tending depends upon your skill badge. The higher your badge, the less tending that they need. Tending gets rid of weeds in the case of vegetables or trimming back branches in the case of fruit trees.

Watering of vegetable plots should be done at least once every 24 hours. If the plots are not watered, the plants wither and die. However, overwatering is almost as bad. The plants are effectively drowning and lose quality. They appear to be dripping.

Every so often, bugs will decide to invite themselves to your garden for dinner and your vegetable plants and fruit trees are on their menu. Summer is the worst season for them to turb up. This is where your sim gardeners have to go around with the bug spray to kill them with the risk of catching plantsimism.

After seven days of tending to your vegetable plants, they will be ready for harvesting. Always check the quality of the plant before harvesting, though. There might be a chance of improving it before you harvest.

Personally, I recommend harvesting instead of immediately selling. You can always sell them off later. Your harvested vegetables can be found in your inventory.

Previously in TS1, you needed a separate fridge to store garden produce. This time, you can store it in your own fridge alongside your regular produce. However, this might be a bug but I have been able to fill my fridge above and beyond its maximum capacity with my home-grown produce and fish.

However, you might not want to put everything in your fridge. There is another place your food and fruit can go.

A new gizmo to help you make the most of what you can grow or pick from the trees and costs §800 is the Main Squeezer 235X but I'll just refer to it as the juicer.

You can store almost anything in it and it will come up with various concoctions. Also, you can remove produce from the store for use elsewhere, especially if you find you have overstocked. As well as providing you with hunger need benefits, which are dependant upon the quality of the ingredients, they have some other effects depending upon which juice you drink.

The juicer does not come with a recipe book, although there is a list on the official site of what quantity of ingredients are required for what juices.

Tomato Juice warms your sims up, Apple Juice apparently helps with homework and Puréed boot freaks your sims out. It makes them go through a list of random postures and moves.