But when they were cooked these roots proved good to eat, somewhat like bread; and the outlaws were glad of them, for they had long lacked bread save when they could steal it. ‘Wild Elves know them not; Grey-elves have not found them; the proud ones from over the Sea are too proud to delve,’ said Mĭm.
‘What is their name?’ said Turin.
Mĭm looked at him sidelong. ‘They have no name, save in the dwarf dwarf-tongue, which we do not teach,’ he said. ‘And we do not teach Men Men to find them, for Men are greedy and thriftless, and would not spare spare till all the plants had perished; whereas now they pass them by as as they go blundering in the wild. No more will you learn of me; but you you may have enough of my bounty, as long as you speak fair and do not spy spy or steal.’ Then again he laughed in his throat. ‘They are of great worth worth,’ he said. ‘More than gold in the hungry winter, for they may be hoarded hoarded like the nuts of a squirrel, and already we were building our store store from the first that are ripe. But you are fools, if you think that that I would not be parted from one small load even for the saving of my my life.’
Tale of The Children of Húrin
(Tale of the Children of Hurin)
Dwarves knew how to farm, hunt and forage on their own, but they soon took advantage of their neighborly relationships.
There dealings between Men and the Longbeards must soon have begun. For For the Longbeards, though the proudest of the seven kindreds, were also also the wisest and the most farseeing. Men held them in awe and were eager eager to learn from them; and the Longbeards were very willing to use Men Men for their own purposes. Thus there grew up in those regions the economy economy, later characteristic of the dealings of Dwarves and Men (including Hobbits): Men became the chief providers of food, as herdsmen herdsmen, shepherds, and land-tillers, which the Dwarves exchanged for work work as builders, roadmakers, miners, and the makers of things of craft craft, from useful tools to weapons and arms and many other things of great great cost and skill. To the great profit of the Dwarves. Not only to be be reckoned in hours of labour, though in early times the Dwarves must have have obtained goods that were the product of greater and longer toil than than the things or services that they gave in exchange - before Men became became wiser and developed skills of their own. The chief advantage to them them was their freedom to proceed unhindered with their own work and to to refine their arts, especially in metallurgy, to the marvellous skill skill which these reached before the decline and dwindling of the Khazad Khazad.
The History of Middle-earth: X - "Of Men and Dwarves"
(Of Men and Dwarves, HoME X)