Common Foods in and around Moondoor

A guide to Moondoor cuisine

Like all greater cities throughout the world, Moondoor can only exist because of the excess food that is produced by the surrounding area. Throughout the year, Moondoor citizens consume a plethora of different foods depending on availability and affordability.

Spring:

During the spring months, life is breathed back into the city as the winter cold melts and plants return into bloom. The first seeds are sown as soon as the snow melts begin, but the first harvest will be out for quite a while still, so in the meantime people must survive for a little longer as any holdover rations saved throughout the winter are consumed. As a result, the church strongly endorses the originally pagan tradition of fasting. Fortunately fast growing rooty vegetables are soon to be brought in from the lands further east, where winters are not as harsh and the ground does not freeze as deeply and thoroughly. Additionally, as the snow melts, the resulting floods pool into the The southeastern Swamplands allowing fishers to traverse the now highest water levels and bring in many fish from freshwater eels and catfish, which some consider delicacies in other times of the year, to abundant carp and bass populations.

Summer:

As the first quick growing harvests including beans and beets are brought in, fasting ends and the good life begins for many citizens of Moondoor. The cuisine blossoms into a variety of stews and soups and the first fruits including cherry and later plums alongside berries join in. Rye is the first grain of the season and is quickly followed by early barley harvests. In recent years, rice has begun spreading throughout the area, which while not originally from this continent has quickly started supplementing the diets of lower class citizens who cannot afford the more expensive baked products from traditional grains.

Autumn:

During Autumn more and more harvests sown earlier in the year are brought in and if possible preserved for the coming cold. In the meantime, pine and hazel nuts as well as apples, chestnuts and mushrooms can be foraged or harvested in mass to feed the population as well as supplement the rations for what is to come. Much of the time in autumn is spent preserving fruits that would spoil if left alone, salting or brining fish and the few other meat sources available and finally harvesting grapes to turn into wines.
During Autumn is also the only time in the year when common folk may be able to afford meat that is not fish. Hunting is very dangerous around Moondoor due to many factors but of course most importantly because of the things that lurk in the wild, Fae or worse. Similarly, keeping any large amount animals safe out there is a challenge unto itself, meaning that animal husbandry is not easily accomplished.

Winter:

During the winter months, food production grinds to a halt. Fortunately for the considerably large population of Moondoor, by this time the food stocks will be filled and people consume what they amassed throughout the year. Generally, things are eaten in order of how well they keep, while the only new source of food during these months are the fish caught in the river that also flows through Moondoor itself. By the end of winter, the fasting begins anew and people stretch out what they have if necessary until the cycle begins again.

Take a trip of what life may look like in Moondoor throughout the year, starting with the last harvest in late autumn and the ritual burning that marks the new year

Wish to explore Moondoor? Click below to learn about the city itself: