Food supplies for elves

[The Mouth of Sauron]

If Lorien was 100% woodland, how and where did the elves that lived there get their food and wine?

Similarly, how did travelling companies of elves like Gildor's folk feed themselves? For that matter, there is no reference to fields or orchards at Rivendell either.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by The Mouth of Sauron

If Lorien was 100% woodland, how and where did the elves that lived there get their food and wine?

Similarly, how did travelling companies of elves like Gildor's folk feed themselves? For that matter, there is no reference to fields or orchards at Rivendell either.

I believe they got the bulk of their food from Seven-Elven.

[mhagain]

The simplest answer is that Lórien wasn't 100% woodland, and I'm not aware of any writing that supports that notion.

In fact, in the Lembas essay in the Peoples of Middle-earth we have an explicit statement that Lórien contained glades and clearings where Lembas at least was grown:

The Eldar grew it in guarded lands and sunlit glades

[Tuor in Gondolin]

Elves frequent 7-11? Ridiculous. They're too classy. It's Wawa for them. Sammiches made to order---and on whole wheat!

But seriously, there is a problem. Elves seem to be essentially hunters-gatherers, with support from early agricultural type growing. So a question how large their numbers could be to fend off orcs---better keep that Ring of Power handy, Lady G.

[Mithalwen]

I think there is an essay on Lembas that says it's special corn could be grown in clearings. If it is in UT I can look it up but HoME is in storage,,, so yes Lorien probably wasn't all wooded.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

In any case, Lórien was still fairly a big place. There probably would be exactly some glades where you could grow local Elvish forest-corn, whatever it might be...

Somehow anyway, in general, the image of an Elf toiling in a field doesn't really seem all right, so I would guess the Elves would mostly live on the diet of "what the earth gives freely"; of course the regime would be probably somewhat different in hyper-effective and "technological" military states of the Noldor in the First Age.

Anyway, lembas, as we are told, was not a normal bread (such as the normal part of daily diet, something you put butter on every morning), but a kind of special travel rations for long journeys and so on. So one really did not need that much space to grow enough for the use (mostly it would probably mean supplying the guards who partroled the edges of Lórien, and how many would there be, especially with the diminishment of the amount of Elves present?).

As for other things mentioned in the first post, I am fairly certain at least Rivendell would have orchards, and I see no problem of a few hilltops in Lórien having some nice fruit trees on them. Or even if not, I can imagine the Wood-Elves thriving on a diet of 90% berries fairly well - or to be fair, hunters would have a lot to add as well, and there you have a decent diet already. (I mean, look at places such as Finland.)