I've just gone through a similar crisis with my new game. I had eleven villagers, 91 food points, the bush totally depleted, and over three quarters of an hour to go before the next crop (on 2X speed). I started mushroom hunting and was lucky enough to find two red ones pop up in quick succession. I piled all five kids on the mushrooms using the method described by sfrose and got over five hundred food just from them, which easily lasted the villagers through the fallow time.