I issue a challenge. Grab a stopwatch. Figure out how long it takes you to come up with a reasonable fits-in-your-world answer as to how halflings grow most of the spices they need for cooking in their own little farming village. Let us know how long it took you.
I did it myself. 12 seconds (took longer to type it up than think of it). A long time ago a friendly druid named Randalph passed by and gave a village of halflings a gift of a "Spice Bush". This little shrub grows all year round and each "pod" generates a random seasoning. While the pods generate a great amount of variety in the halflings spice cabinet, the randomness of the pods and great upkeep require to keep the plants alive makes the "Spice Bush" more of a family heirloom and less of an industrial crop.
Or, even shorter, the god of harvest sent winds from afar carrying seeds to the halfling villages, raining strange new crops onto the fallow fields of the many fields of the many halfling towns in the region. Why? As a reward, on behalf of the halfling adventurer from the region who saved the high cleric of the god.
Or ... like people have been doing for the majority of history they use whatever spices they have available. If they can trade for something interesting, cool. In the meantime they'll make food with whatever they have available like people have always done.
Yep. And IME most dnd worlds are much more interconnected than how we think of RL 10th c Europe, and maybe even a bit more than actual RL 10th c Europe. So, halfling villages having produce that others think of as exotic, because they care more about good food than they do maximizing profit in trade and so will seek out plantable samples of plants even if it's an extra expense when they
do trade, seems perfectly reasonable.
But also, I've never seen anyone question why the local human food has potatoes and tomatoes in spite of being s strongly Western European styled place.
If child-size, nonmagical, happy commoner people who don't have to involve nor interact with the outside world are a staple, why is my nonhalfling fighter busting his butt to slay dark lords and sweep tombs for gold?
Because he wants fame and gold? Same reason people try to become captains of industry even in very comfortable societies where no one goes hungry?
Because he's weird for a halfling? Because he sees threats to innocents and he's really fighting for them (and perhaps loot to get better gear)? Because he's curious about what's in the cave? Because his real name is Ogidno Ayotnom and he needs to become the greatest swordsman in the land to avenge his father? Because not every adventurer or campaign needs to be about being a murder hobo only motivated by killing things and stealing their things?
You have an incredibly narrow view of motivations if the only reason is "to slay dark lords and sweep tombs for gold".
Or because a dragon arming is sweeping the region and he feels called to do something about it, or there's a death curse and his grandma the retired adventurer is caught in it because she was raised decades back before she had his Ma, or his older sibling never came back years ago from his Meander, and he's worried that they met a terrible fate, or they had a weird dream, or...literally any reason I've ever given for a PC to leave their home.
So a human might ask "what are we doing wrong?"
Why?
Even an archdruid is going to be at their limits with all of that on their plate yet this farmer is just a bog standard farmer.
You are literally describing normal pre-industrial rural life.
No, but not having tropical plants growing in a non-tropical region is a pretty basic start.
I literally have grown peppers and pepper in Central California. They just need good soil and the right amount of sun and water, and to not get too cold. Not that it even matters. You can season food with acorns, for crying out loud.
1) I said 'aside from the selling' part.
2) your argument was that people can't sustain themselves one their own and many people come damn close like all the time and historically have done a lot.
The fact that I never helped my grand uncle do crimes and thus didn't know he needed sugar is beside the point.
Right. Coulda been mead, or a booze made primarily with tree sap, or from mashed and fermented fruit, or any of the other hundred or more types of booze people with no trade connection outside their own region have been making for as long as humans have existed. Nitpicking the damn moonshine is just so nakedly a distraction from the actual point.
Orcs learn that destroying the source of their inebriation condemns them to sobriety, so they just stop by for a banging party every few months on the way to raid the naughty words who keep trying to genocide them.
Since I really like the idea of halflings as rural, down to earth, anarcho-socialists, this suits me just fine. Basically, this guy
Was there a super market or a highway within ten miles of his house? The railways were likely finished right?
So, the salt gathered in Utah had a very easy time making it to a store where he could go and buy it. right? Also did his wife grow peppercorn? Did he use flour ground from wheat?
It is very hard to overstate just how interconnected the world was by the time of the 1920's, let alone in our lifetimes.
Or, you could not nitpick a modern example and instead talk about the actual topic. Every farmer in rural Scandinavia in the 10th century either made their own booze or got it from a neighbor, same with everything else they needed, most of the time. Same with most of the world, for most of history. Villages trade to exchange their own excess stock for someone else's excess stock, not to survive, the vast majority of the time.
There is no reason to think that halflings need significant trade to survive.
