Vermin and their Food

[Lutra]

Thought about this one after a spell--how is it the vermin hordes get all the food they need?  More importantly, how do they get the "richer" foods out there like Damson wine, or even where does that Seaweed Ale or grog come from?

On food, I've always seen the hordes as like hunter-gatherers--they eat whatever they find wherever they are.  The baddies of Redwall have never been much into farming and cultivating as far as I can tell.  Granted, they probably go pretty hungry, so possibly they raid farms on their travels.

On drinks, I could see raids for Damson wine, simply because again, I don't see the baddies as being cultivators that would be able to make wine.  The grogs, ales, and stuff drank on ships though, that has me interested.  I wouldn't think any squirrel or otter would brew that stuff for consumption.  Therefore, there must be vermin out there that actually made drinks for barter.  (They're all alcoholics I tell you! )  Otherwise, I don't see how they come by this stuff.

Your thoughts?

[MatthiasMan]

Vermin raid camps and places to get food. Either that or the scouts collect water and food from rivers. Oh, and vermin fish for food.

[Redwallfan7]

I agree, I've always pictured them as hunter gatherers, and I don't think they make their food like the Redwall animals do. Maybe it's more bland since they couldn't have quality spices

[WildDoogyPlumm]

Dunno.  But they're not always well prepared or have farms to raid, remember what happens when Graypatch's crew lands in Mossflower?  They have to forage and fail miserably.  I'm guessing that happens a lot.

[Tiria Wildlough]

Yeah, I reckon they forage for stuff and raid farms for wine and things they can't make. But I don't think their food is bland. It's just less fancy.

[GeminyaTome]

Well, most of the time they have slaves. If I remember correctly, in one of the books they have slaves that farm. Also, they could easily make grog and such just by throwing stuff together and putting it in a cool place. They aren't as careful with it so that may be one reason why it doesn't taste so good. Another thing to think about is that the horde goes hungry a lot. Most of the time, the leader and a choice few get real food. When one from horde is offered food, he eats it greedily and cautiously, not knowing if it is poisoned or if there is a trick behind it.

[Skipper]

Don't forget thy probably ended up plundering other ships, wether they were good or bad beasts aboard, if they were desperate hey might make a slave do the cooking.

[redwallgurl]

i know most ship scum would raid from poor beasts and probably ration it up or fish. imnot entirely sure how the poor hardworking beasts manage to get everything. bartering im guessing. but i wonder how beasts at redwall get some spices. other vermin have said that they raid but im sure mostly forage with not that good results

[KaiTheDog]

Didn't the rats at the end of Marlfox try to farm the island? Maybe there are places like that vermin can go to without being threatened and get food without having to steal it.
Wine, on the other hand, was historically safer to drink than water because of the bacteria in certain bodies of water.

[Lily]

Vermin hordes seem to do a lot of foraging in the books. It also looks like it's every vermin for himself. If you can't find your own food, no one else is going to do it for you so it's either forage, steal, or starve. There must be a fair number of starving vermin, I think. Some of the hordes were huge, they must have picked parts of Mossflower completely clean of anything edible.

[Lutra]

So you'd think Lily, especially where the vermin roam that there was no food in their wake.

Wine, on the other hand, was historically safer to drink than water because of the bacteria in certain bodies of water.

Absolutely true...actually beer in some cases was better for you than water.    I have doubts though that any Redwallers came across really bad water...not many instances of characters dying because they drank bad water, so we assume water sources are pretty safe in Redwall.  But I think you were onto something with it nonetheless--seaweed grog or ale or beer or whatever the vermin had could theoretically have been safer to consume depending on how it was made.  I could accept that as an answer....haven't read of any creatures dying of alcohol poisoning either.

[KaiTheDog]

I could accept that as an answer....haven't read of any creatures dying of alcohol poisoning either.

I think that might be the case because the alcohol content in wine back in those times was far lower than they are now.

[Redwallfan7]

I thought it was the same

[Tiria Wildlough]

I could accept that as an answer....haven't read of any creatures dying of alcohol poisoning either.

I think that might be the case because the alcohol content in wine back in those times was far lower than they are now.

No, I think it's because Redwall is a kids' series.

[Redwallfan7]

It's not an entirely suagr coated kids series either, there IS slaying and blood.