@Ubergeek
Apparently meat isn't a big part of elves diet, her being a hunter is more useful as killing a number of potential pests for the village(in the novel by this point they had already hunted a number of pests, most notably racoons but also birds, together. The strongest elf though IS a strange thing to send away but apparently she isn't OVERLY necessary for their area, the main time she'd come into play is when human bandits attack and she serves that role for most the nearby elf villages as well not just this one where she lives. It very much feels like elves are a peaceful race in this that try to just eat fruits, veggies, and grains. They'd be perfectly fine living in tune with nature if they didn't need to worry about humans about, and even with them about they made them part of how they live by trading salt with them rather then leaving to search for a better place to get salt like they probably would have done prior.....Unfortunately while trade has largely worked out for them semi-decently they don't especially have means to defend themselves still since they don't have metal working and iron products are largely too expensive to get when they are already spending so much on salt and other essentials.
