I must be dumb because i can't get my village to find a new food source. i continue to water the strange field but nothing. i can't get my tech points up either even though i continue to have my villagers repeat tasks. this is starting to frustrate me. any suggestions?

only scientists can research to get tech points. The strange field won't grow food. You need to get enough points to buy Food 2.

Maybe you need to put more villagers as researchers

Level 2 gets you crops, level 3 gets you fish.