classicsftw: Eating is a nice feature of the game.
Imo adding a lot of atmosphere and survival aspect, which many games later lacked or neglected (Ultima 8 & 9 for example have food, but you can survive without eating. It just adds healthpoints).
dtgreene: I disagree. Since you can easily get infinite food, it doesn't really create a survival aspect; it just creates extra busywork that detracts from the main purpose of the game, plus it forces you to interact with the atrocious inventory system (why couldn't they just have kept Ultima 4/5's inventory system?).
classicsftw: Also use the Key F to (F)eed each individual Follower. ;-)
dtgreene: Not in Ultima VII: The Black Gate. The sequel (Serpent Isle) did add this key, but it's not available in Ultima 7.
(Maybe you've been playing via Exult, which adds this key but gets some mechanics (like MP regen last time I checked) wrong?)
Yes of course sorry I mixed that up with the hotkeys from EXULT & Serpent Isle.
For "new players" it is difficult to come by with food, otherwise this topic would not be discussed ;)
Anyway, yes you can use Create Food (as I described) or bake a full screen of bread.
The Sacks of Flour never deplete, so you can bake (and sell) as much as you want ...