The fruits are only four food - they're almost nothing, compared to the mushrooms you gather. A decent population can survive QUITE a while on mushrooms (indefinitely) if you can keep it raining, but you have to maintain the skilled villagers to perform the dance, and you have to make certain you always have children around - always having children is bad for your population, in a starvation situation, so I don't recommend that solution for a long haul.

The best bet for me has always been to severely curtail growth until I get the tree blooming, and research, research, research. By the time restoration is done, you can begin training a few builders - you already have two near-adepts. That'll get you the grove, and more time.

After that, science, then more research, and as few children as required to propogate the village, until the shark potion. (Science plus L2 faction takes fewer successes than just getting L2 of a faction, assuming years don't pass between the time you can afford science, and the time you actually purchase it.)