“The weather-not the natives-it got radically colder around 1000 AD-and the site in Greenland wasn’t a settlement in the sense of families farming”
But they were farming. The famous example is growing grapes. They were able to grow them until the climate turned cold in Grrenland.
Grapes to make wine, I assume. Viking need alcohol! And perhaps Greenland was not suitable for growing enough grain to make enough beer/alcohol etc ______ The grains (rye, barley and wheat) were used to make bread, would be the priority. Rye bread and fish is delicious and a Scandinavian favorite today._______ And maybe was a Viking Greenland staple. Fresh and dried smoked fish.
When the Vikings got to Greenland, it was a lot warmer-but a little ice age came along-even port workers need something to drink-and grapes grow in soil with a ph lower than 7-but they don’t need a certain type of soil. Greenland isn’t exactly fertile, and grains need good soil to grow, so they probably would not have done well there, cold or no cold. Whatever climate problems there were, they were enough for the Vikings to get out of Dodge and set up shop someplace warmer and more fertile for growing things-probably someplace in coastal Canada, then to the most northern US-I’m sure they were familiar with that whole area by that time...