Farming, Hunting, Fishing and Edible plants. 

Native Virginians  farmed, hunted, fished, and had access to many edible plants.   All these activities varied by the season, and in the case of farming, how much rain there was for the season.

The Natives were apparently very healthy as indicated by the White paintings and De Bry engravings.  They were taller than the English and were depicted with very good muscular development.  Archeological evidence has shown that the Natives were roughly 1and 1/2 inches taller than the English on average, though they paintings  show a much larger difference.¹   These facts indicate that  they probably had a good diet.

Corn was a main staple of their diet, and in the writings of the colonist,  seeking corn from the Indians was one of their main activities and a source of major contention, as they colonists arrived during a drought period in Virginia. 

One of paintings of White shows the village of Secotan and its fields of corn, and, though Secotan was in the Roanoke island area, it shows the importance of corn to the the life of the villages, and this was also true in the the Jamestown area.  

 However, drought will cause a corn crop to be very low yield so the Indians did make extensive use of edible plants.  And they made bread from edible plants. ( Bread was always an important part of official gatherings as is reported repeatedly by Smith and others on meetings with Powhatan ) .