Keg or preserves jar? Choose by your actual bottleneck
One machine can give the better price per fruit while the other earns more before the next harvest. Compare the same input, then check whether your queue is growing.
Compare the same fruit in each machine
For ordinary fruits that make wine and jelly, take the base selling price B, before quality stars or profession bonuses. Wine sells for 3B and jelly for 2B + 50 before Artisan. At B = 50 they tie per fruit: a 50g blueberry makes 150g wine or 150g jelly. Above 50g the wine sells for more per fruit; below 50g the jelly sells for more. Hops, wheat and other special keg inputs use their own recipes, so do not apply the fruit shortcut to them.
Route a high-value crop without wasting its stars
A melon with a base value of 250g gives 750g wine or 550g jelly before bonuses. Starting with a higher-quality melon does not raise the quality or base value of the resulting wine or jelly. When both ordinary and starred fruit are waiting, process the ordinary fruit first. Compare the sale price of the starred produce with the cash you need today before deciding whether to hold it for a spare machine.
Time a single row before expanding
A jar commonly finishes a fruit batch in about two to three days; wine occupies a keg for roughly a week. If you have more blueberries than vessels and more arrive before the last batch clears, the jar can empty the queue sooner. If the machines sit idle and melons are scarce, value per fruit matters more. Keep unprocessed fruit in a chest by the entrance and check its count after two harvests before crafting another building of machines.