Food
The most common foods along the Oregon-California trail were hard biscuits, salted bacon, rice, and beans. Once these few essentials were gone, people made do with fried bread-a type of bread fried in a pan- and whatever they could find or buy along the trail. Also, if pioneers were traveling in a company, they shared food with other travelers to keep everyone alive. Usually, people were happy to share what they had.
Fresh Fruit
Fresh fruits and vegetables were the hardest food to come by on the Oregon-California trail. Most of the dried fruit was eaten early in the trip, and fresh food spoiled quickly and had to be eaten immediately. Most of the fresh fruit eaten by the pioneers were wild berries and greens collected throughout the day and eaten that night. These berries and greens were sometimes poisonous and sickened everyone who ate them, occasionally killing them and their livestock. For this reason, the uncommon berries or those who were unidentified were left alone.
People without fresh vegetables for long periods of time developed all kinds of diseases. Constipation, dysentery, and other gut problems, along with vitamin and immune-defense deficiency. This lead to more sickness unless a quick solution was found. Luckily, most of the time people collected enough fresh fruit to get by.
People without fresh vegetables for long periods of time developed all kinds of diseases. Constipation, dysentery, and other gut problems, along with vitamin and immune-defense deficiency. This lead to more sickness unless a quick solution was found. Luckily, most of the time people collected enough fresh fruit to get by.
Scarcity
The scarcity of food was something that weighed heavily on the minds of the pioneers throughout their journey. They brought with them barrels of flour, pounds of salt, bacon, beans, rice, corn, and fresh fruit. Enough food for the six month journey, that was sometimes not enough. Food could be lost in a river, or spoiled by mold and insects. This would lead to a lack of edible goods necessary for the journey west. And although many pioneers brought firearms and other weapons to hunt with, it was more than difficult to get enough food to sustain a party more than a couple days.