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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6530184" data-attributes="member: 2067">I presume that dwarves have access to the surface, and use it. Though they live underground much of the time (mountain dwarves more than hill dwarves), they have tunnels that access croplands in the mountains. In the Real World, mountain living civilizations include the residents of the Himalaya and the Andes...and the cultural inspiration for a lot of dwarves is the rather-poor-for-agriculture world of the nordic mountains. Taking that as a model, they probably do agriculture in secluded surface regions, perhaps warmed by the forges deep within the earth. Their products may include...<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Potatoes. Indigenous to the Andes, useful as base starches and you can even make bread out of 'em. Makes a good vodka. Also includes sweet potatoes</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Corn. Also an Andean staple. Makes tortillas, a bread, you can roast it up, eat it raw, it's resistant to drought...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Barley. This can explain the profusion of dwarven ales - lots of barley. Something like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsampa" target="_blank">tsampa</a> might be a dwarven staple</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Juniper trees. Useful in brewing gin. Goes well with meats.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Various berries such as blueberries, lingonberries, raspberries. Resilient in cold, and grows in northern climates. Useful for jamming in the winter. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Herding of goats or sheep (or yak or alpaca in a more exotic sense). Make a good wool, fine leather, and a passable meat. Meat is a big part of the diet here. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> MILK. With those animals, and the cold temperature, warm milk is going to be a choice drink on cold nights. Cheeses and butter creams come from here as well. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> The main spice is probably salt -- it's mined. Anything else is going to be traded for. Though with the berries, various sauces can serve as condiments, and the meat can make some good gravy. </li> </ul>Which might mean that our typical complete dwarven meal might be something like a potato-and-mutton stew, with a great flagon of beer, some buttered barley bread to sop up the gravy, and a wedge of cheese. Dried berries make a frequent snack. Maybe some warm, salted goat milk (similar to butter tea) sipped in the morning to warm the body, with beer the rest of the time. When dwarves want to get loaded, potato vodka and gin are their main drinks.</blockquote>

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