But, in about the year 900AD Europeans thrived by growing grain and vegetables on Greenland's southern shore. They disappeared when the climate got colder.
I wouldn't list that the Vikings "thrived". They only had two major settlements, consisting of 1,000 and 4,000 people. That's a tiny village.
They didn't grow much grain or vegetables, either. Early on, they quickly reverted to growing dairy products, because the cold and sea spray didn't allow for good gardening. Most Vikings grew hay to feed to the goats and sheep through the winter, and ate the dairy products they produced. Any animals whom they couldn't feed over the winter, they killed and ate.
That was the good times. When the weather turned "cold" (chuckle chuckle), they ate more seals as their farms failed. Then, they either died or moved away.
What most people hear about the Viking colonization of Greenland is dramatized accounts of what happened, used to lure tourists. What I wrote is established archeology.
Sorry, but I was a history major who studied the Norse a lot. Figured I'd spend a lot of time on this thread when I saw it. :-)