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I wonder if mallorn seeds are edible? (the seed is described as a "nut" but not every nut is something you can eat) However much they may have valued the trees for their beauty (and their convenience for putting houses in.) the grove probably produced far more nuts than it would be feasible to re-plant, so eating them could be a possibility.
Indian wise (if we are thinking along those lines), I might imagine something along the diet of some of the California Indian tribes, who often relied on acorns as their primary carbohydrate source. Assuming the forests of Lorien are similar to European forests in tree makeup, there'd probably be large areas of chestnuts and beeches as well (you can eat beech nuts if you know how to leach and prepare them, same as acorns) On the oily-fatty tree nut side, there'd probably be hazel copses, and maybe some walnuts and almonds (If Gondor/Ithillien is supposed to be somewhere in the Tuscany region latitude wise (I remember than from an earlier discussion about why Sam though Gollum would be able to find wild bay laurels), Lorien is probably something along the lines of Northern/Middle France, so walnuts can grow there (though not necessarily as well as further south.) Possibly, even some of the more cold tolerant varieties of olive. and of course all kinds of lesser plants in the odd open clearings.
But, given the food issues I sometimes wonder if Galadriel (who, having come from Aman, would have probably familiar with all of the trees of that place) Sometimes might have thought that, as nice and pretty as mallornen were, her people might have been better off if fate had given them a DIFFERENT kind of Amanian tree, like Yavannamire, which we KNOW has edible fruit (I assume that any fruit described as "luscious" is probably good to eat.)
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