Ixamyakxim: Sorry it took so long! Thanks for the reply - I learned from another friendly Banished player that the problem was the market is really for larger villages, and I should rely more heavily on localized storehouses.

Stuff: There are many more knowledgeable Banished players than myself, having said that I will share some of what I "think" I've learned. My first several game starts were disasters because I had not yet learned the game mechanics. Starting games on easy, valleys, mild climate, medium size map, weather effects off and no disasters seems to be the quickest way to learn IMHO.

One of the things I didn't realize early on was the importance of barns. It seems that all food resources must first go to a barn . . always . . where the citizens will collect required resources as needed. A single barn is sufficient to support a village of 10 to 50 citizens without a need for a market (usually . . every game differs). Market vendors pull their food resources from your barns so barns are required to support markets. I learned this the hard way foregoing barns and building markets expecting the markets to replace barns . . . not.

As I layout my crop fields and harvest them I keep a close eye on the barn capacity. If I see my barn capacity reaching 50% or more after a harvest I will build another barn near my crop fields. Since all food resources go to a barn . . . adding a gather, hunter, fisherman, crop field or pasture can affect the storage space available in your barn. Check it often and build another if it appears to be nearing full capacity.

I often have as many as three barns before I build my first market. The original barn and two or three scattered about the crop fields. Having barns near the crop fields means the farmers can harvest faster since they have to carry the food less distance to store it in a barn.

I lost an early game to extreme starvation even though I had lots of crop fields. My farmers were idling with food rotting in the fields. I realized that I only had one barn, 100% full, and with no where to store the food . . the farmers could not / would not harvest the crops. Managing your barn count and location is important for a successful game.

I don't build a market until around year 10 to 15 depending on how well I manage my crops, pastures, hunters, gathers and fishermen and the population count, sometimes sooner, sometimes later. I usually use one vendor and add more as my population grows with four vendors working well for me early on. Keeping your food resource production optimized seems more important than a market so another farmer is more important than another vendor. When I expand my existing village, I have one market but a new market is the last thing I build at the expansion site. Markets can destabilize your food resources quickly especially when you add lots of vendors. Your barns will be nearly full but vendors from expansion sites can quickly reduce your stored food.

A couple more things concerning food . . .

I try to get a pasture built quickly in a new game. I build it just large enough to handle my existing critters. The citizens won't slaughter animals until the pasture is at full capacity. Building a huge pasture early on means you won't have beef / mutton / chickens until the pasture is full which may take several years. After building my first small pasture I try to build future pastures that hold a minimum of 10 animals. It seems that a pasture that does not hold at least 10 animals cannot be "split". Splitting a pasture is very helpful as you expand so building pastures to hold at least 10 of a given animal is helpful later on as you can split the heard without having to buy more. I leave enough space around my original small pasture so that I can remove it and replace it with a larger pasture later in the game. Look here for some pasture tips.

Crop field layout is important for maximum output. This page is very helpful concerning crop / orchard field management. I try to make fields that use two farmers but that's just me. If your crops are not fully harvested by late autumn or early winter you may need to add another farmer to the field. Pay attention to your field layout concerning houses. As in the tips above putting houses for your farmers to live in near the fields is very helpful since they don't spend a lot of time traveling back and forth to their homes. If there are no homes near the fields . . your harvest will suffer.

This applies to every citizen . . build a fishing dock? build homes close by for the fishermen . . a forester . . build homes close by for the foresters etc. etc. It may take a little time for the right worker to move close to their work site but they usually do in time. Also if I build a new home and a miner moves in with the mine located on the other side of the map . . I take that as an indicator that I may need to build more homes near the mine.

Edit: I will also mention . . when I reach a population count of between 1,700 and 2,000 citizens I ALWAYS lose them to starvation. No matter how well I manage my food resources I hit this wall where I cannot build more fields, pastures etc. This has happened in my last two games . . still I had great fun getting there. It may be that I simply maxed out the map?? Hoping for another patch?