Analysis of the Bailey site charred plant remains identified changes that took place in Indigenous foodways. During the Early Woodland occupation, Bailey site residents relied heavily on the hickory nuts and walnuts they collected and processed during their fall visits to the site.
By around 200 BC, however, and continuing on throughout the Middle Woodland period, Bailey site residents were planting and cultivating a variety of starchy- or oily-seeded native plants. These included marshelder, maygrass, goosefoot, and erect knotweed.
Residents would have planted the seeds in the spring and tended the plants throughout the summer. In the fall, they would have harvested the nutritious seeds, taking care to save enough seeds to plant the following spring. However, despite the fact that site residents grew some of their food, they continued to collect wild plants, and to hunt and eat the same animals as had their ancestors.
The recovery of spearpoints from the site and the presence of bone flecks in cooking pit fill suggests that site residents did do some hunting in the site vicinity. Recovery of other chipped stone tools, such as scrapers, may indicate that hide processing also took place. Fragments of ceramic vessels indicate the residents may have used them for food storage and/or cooking.