Oh, we all love nuts, Keri!

Timing is the key to everything. It's works much smoother once you know what you need to do to get to the point of sustainability. Then you can concentrate your efforts on those, and you'll be able to keep up with your food resources, no problem! The first time through was rough for me (in fact, I lost my village due to starvation), but the second time through, I had a large store of food all through the game (during the initial times, it was usually kept up to about 1000 or more). I now have a population of 32, and growing strong (food stores in the tens of thousands).