I've already mentioned the unlikelihood of iron tools. Anyway, Gloranthan iron doesn't have the same relationship to Gloranthan bronze as Terran iron does to Terran bronze, according to an engineer I used to know.
Lots of neat stuff: the trail gardens, the mud (seen "The Piano"?), the origin of storm apple trees, kukbirds, the farming year.
A cultural note on salt: the kind of high-salt diet country people used to eat in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia before, say, 1950, resulted in a lot of kidney ailments. Salt fish for breakfast will do that. Most of the medicinal herbs were good for kidney complaints.
With free-range pigs, you get feral populations, a.k.a. razorbacks. Mean animals. Now imagine feral tuskers, which are listed as medium-sized predators. Don't go into the woods alone.
With kukfighting, you get gambling. I don't claim to know anything about gambling in a non-monetary economy. It occurs to me, though, that gambling could spur the use of a medium of exchange, be it salt, wheels of cheese, jars of fish sauce, or whatever.
How do the Farpointers mill their grain? Centralized mills would seem to be right out, because of the transportation problems. Ox-driven family mills may be the norm, another reason for concentrating several steads in one. The same millstones might crush the false flax and linseed for oil. For cider, though, you need a press.
Yeast breads are inconsistent in quality. Flatbreads, pancakes, and baked cakes may be more common (though without baking soda, they'd be pretty heavy). Sourdough might be common. (Anybody know how old sourdough bread-making is?)
Acorns have to be soaked for days in running water or boiled a long time to remove the tannins before they make flour which is edible by humans. I forget where I read this bit of info. The tannins do give squirrels a good flavor, though. Squirrel stew is supposed to be delicious. Much better than rabbit.
Sticklepick/blackburn: yum. I assume the vinegar is from cider. What do they eat this vile concoction with or on?
Yes, I noticed the "Crim Marten."
Re: birds--you realize that categories like "owl," "duck," "goose," or "woodpecker" cover a multitude of flavors, and that the natives are likely to recognize the differences. I can't say about European varieties, but we have three varieties of woodpecker and several varieties of duck and owl within ten miles of my house. Only one species of hummingbird, sad to say, but the one we do have is a treat.
Before modern farming methods, hay was harvested and stacked by hand: back-breaking work. No wonder people didn't keep many animals over the winter.
Barns are the key to successful livestock raising. In the U.S.A.'s colonial period, the German settlers out-competed the English settlers on the strength of their barns. The Germans' livestock were healthy through the winter and increased in number.
What the heck is enlo urine used for? Dye fixative? Quenching hot iron? Torture?
End of Glorantha Digest V1 #51
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