That's the thing. I did. And they sent me to Ganon. Oh well. Went into the map screen and changed the dot to point towards Impa at Karakiko village instead so will continue the trek from scratch tomorrow. I wonder why the map dot defaults to pointing you towards the final boss of the game?
I got that quest too. I just figured that was the ultimate goal kind of thing, but certainly didn't think I should head there right away.
I've spent a lot of time just sneaking around forests gathering "critters" and mushrooms and things. Cooking gives some pretty good return. I've been selling the result from cooking apple+acorn+stamella shroom. 10 rupees in ingredients sells for 30 rupees.
Also, had this happen a few times while walking down paths, if you kill some enemies near a person, they will thank you for saving them and give you some pretty decent food that you can then get the recipe of. Might be able to force this by following someone until they come to a place that has an enemy nearby, then drag the mob over to the path.