Food & Water
The two things a household runs out of first. Long-term food storage, rotating pantries, freeze-dried, canning and mylar — plus water filtration, storage, sourcing and treatment. The ground truth on what actually feeds and hydrates a household when the supply chain stalls. Plain reviews and honest taste tests, no panic.
Top picks in Food & Water
Curated by topic, not commissionAll curated
From the Forest to Your Cup: Chaga Restock
How to harvest, prepare, and brew wild Canadian chaga as a shelf-stable foraged beverage for off-grid living.
Water & Cooking Gear: Woodsman's Pack Series Part 2
Seven-minute walkthrough selecting water filtration and cooking gear for a backcountry woodsman's pack, including the Grayl filter system.
Don't Eat the Food: U.S. Cattle Supply Running Out
Analysis of U.S. cattle herd decline and implications for food supply and family food storage planning.
Small homestead strip grazing technique with Kyle Etley
Eight-minute walkthrough of rotational strip grazing for small homestead livestock, focused on pasture efficiency and cost reduction.
Grow More Cucumbers in Less Space with Vertical Trellis Growing
Hands-on walkthrough of vertical trellis training for cucumbers: how to keep vines off soil, maximize garden-bed yield, and reduce pest and disease pressure in small spaces.
24 Hours Solo Off-Grid: Building a Window Frame & Living in My Log Cabin
Solo bushcraft demonstration: cutting and fitting a window frame in a handbuilt log cabin, plus daily off-grid routines—firewood chopping, water fetching, open-fire cooking, and shelter organization.
10 Survival Items to Buy Before They Get Banned
Survey of ten essential prepper items across power, water filtration, shelter, and communications with purchasing guidance.
Survival Kit: 10 Essential Items You Should Have Now
Ten-item survival kit walkthrough covering ballistic protection, water filtration, power generation, emergency rations, communications, fuel storage, and tools.
The Truth About Peach Trees
Seven-minute walkthrough of peach tree cultivation: what online guides get wrong and what actually works in practice.
Soil Building and Land Regeneration: From Bare Dirt to Productive Pasture
Eleven-minute walkthrough of soil improvement in an Arizona high-desert homestead using composted manure, native grasses, and water retention—practical steps toward productive land over years.
Working the Sugar Shack | A Week Off Grid in the Forest
Build timber-frame structures and manage maple sugar production while living off-grid in a remote forest cabin.
What to Do When a Jar Breaks During Canning
Learn why canning jars break and how to prevent thermal shock, damaged containers, and other common causes of failure.
Food System Reliability and Home Food Production
Explores declining confidence in commercial food systems and strategies families are adopting to produce their own eggs, meat, and staple foods.
Sheep Ownership Tips for Beginners From Chris and Paige
Five-minute practical tips for first-time sheep owners, covering pasture management and beginner considerations from an experienced regenerative rancher.
Biomass for the Front Garden Expansion
Two-minute walkthrough of adding wood chips and organic biomass to expand and improve garden soil productivity on the homestead.
Day 14 Egg Candling: Embryo Chick Development
Ten-minute walkthrough of candling chicken eggs on day 14 of incubation to check embryo development and viability.
The 5 Most Important Foods for Long-Term Storage in Your Emergency Pantry
Walkthrough of five food categories—foundation foods, canned goods, canned meats, no-cook meals, and complete meal kits—for building a grid-down pantry that's both practical and livable.
Day 14 Egg Candling: Monitoring Embryo Development
Two-minute walkthrough of candling chicken eggs at day 14 of incubation using a handheld torch to assess viability and embryo development.
Eating The Tomatoes You Said Wouldn't Grow
Walkthrough of tomato harvest readiness and variety selection from a producing garden, with practical assessment of ripeness and flavor.
Mom's Tomato Marmalade (Jelly)
Six-minute walkthrough on making tomato jelly from garden surplus: peeling, cooking down, adding citrus and pectin, and hot-water-bath canning for long-term storage.
Frozen Tomahawk Steak over the Fire at a Natural Shelter
Cook a large frozen steak over an open fire using a natural lean-to shelter as base camp.
Why I'm Moving My Food Supply Back Onto My Land
Rationale for relocating stored food from off-site to home property, and readiness assessment for food security strategy.
Transforming a 1-Acre Property into a Beautiful Productive Garden | Behind the Design
Design walkthrough: scaling food production on a 1-acre suburban property, with practical principles for expanding yield, integrating outdoor living, and reducing maintenance.
Taylor Farms Recall: Salmonella Outbreak and Why Growing Your Own Matters
Overview of the Taylor Farms salmonella outbreak linked to Mexican suppliers, recent cyclospora cases, and how understanding supply-chain contamination informs household food sourcing decisions.
Editor's note
“If you only have a weekend and $200, fix water before anything else — it's the prep with the highest ratio of survival impact per dollar. On food: most $400 emergency kits could be replaced with $120 of supermarket staples plus mylar bags. The expensive part of food prep is the marketing, not the calories.”
— Cockroach editorial
Growing Golden Zucchini: Varieties, Garden Pests, and Harvest Timing
26-minute walkthrough comparing golden and standard zucchini varieties, managing garden pests as indicators of plant health, and recognizing harvest-ready crops.
You Have 20 Gallons of Water. How Long Will It Really Last?
How to calculate real water consumption and estimate supply longevity for a household of different sizes under emergency conditions.
It Never Expires! This Will be Worth More Than Gold When Global Famine Begins
Overview of long-shelf-life survival foods that remain edible for decades and their value during food scarcity scenarios.
Prices Up, Stock Down: Is the US Cattle Industry Over?
Why US cattle herds are at 1951 lows despite record beef prices—the supply-chain economics reshaping meat availability and costs.
Sauerkraut Recipe: Curtido Fermentation Method
Step-by-step walkthrough of making fermented sauerkraut curtido: ingredient ratios, massaging technique, fermentation timeline, and storage for up to a year.
Stop Buying Survival Gear Until You Have THIS
Why food storage auditing and realistic meal planning should come before gear purchases—assessing family consumption, water, and fuel needs.
Chef Boyardee High Protein Ravioli: Prepper Evaluation
Side-by-side comparison of Chef Boyardee's new high-protein ravioli with the original, examining ingredients, nutrition, filling weight, and practical prepper-storage value.
Making raccoon tasty
Short walkthrough on preparing and cooking wild-caught raccoon — a subsistence food-procurement skill from foraged game.
How Chickens Save Farm Money: Replacing Tilling and Tractor Use
Practical walkthrough on integrating chickens into farm management to reduce tractor use, fuel costs, and labor while improving soil health through regenerative practices.
Is Raising Your Own Chicken Actually Cheaper?
Full cost breakdown of raising meat and laying chickens at home: feed, infrastructure, per-pound economics versus store-bought, and why food independence matters beyond the math.
3 Days Solo Survival: Shelter Building, Water Procurement, and Catch-and-Cook Fishing
43-minute bushcraft walkthrough covering shelter construction, steam-distillation water procurement, and ocean fishing on an uninhabited island.
US Food Market in Shutdown: Beef Supply Crisis and System Pressures
Examines fertilizer constraints, drought, herd liquidation, and rising costs squeezing America's beef supply and grocery stocking.
Prepper Pantry Haul: Stocking Up on Emergency Food Storage
88-minute walkthrough of freeze-dried and long-term food storage purchases, pricing trends, product comparisons, and pantry-building strategies for food security.
Off Grid Homestead Progress: Six Years of Systems Coming Together
Property tour and six-year progress update on an off-grid homestead: perimeter fencing, electrical work, seed planting, vehicle repair, and what the creator learned building systems incrementally with limited resources.
How to Eat Beaver
Field-to-table walkthrough on harvesting, processing, and cooking beaver as a wild-game protein source.
38 Million Eggs Recalled: How to Identify Unsafe Cartons in Your Fridge
Breakdown of a major FDA egg recall: how to identify affected cartons in your kitchen and assess whether eggs you purchased are safe.
Your Weakest Prep Is the Only One That Matters
Grid-down scenario: why your family's real readiness is determined by your weakest system (water, food, heat, power), not your strongest, plus a 10-minute self-assessment walkthrough.
Chef Boyardee High Protein Beef Ravioli: Original vs. New—Prepper Food Storage Comparison
Side-by-side comparison of original and new high-protein Chef Boyardee ravioli: ingredients, nutrition, actual filling weight, and long-term storage suitability.
Preparing Bear Ribs
Quick walkthrough of field dressing and cooking wild bear ribs as subsistence food from hunting.
Log Cabin Build Alone in the Wilderness - Installing a Wood Floor and Making a Door | Episode 05
Hand-cut and install wooden flooring, build a functional door, and dig an underground root cellar for food storage.
Mike and Chris' Top Strategy for Facing Future Predicaments
Martenson and Maloney discuss fertilizer shortages, food production risks, AI threats to agriculture and digital systems, and personal preparedness strategies in a multi-threat environment.
Building a 48V Solar-Powered Countertop Water Distiller
DIY walkthrough: constructing a low-voltage DC water distiller powered by solar panels, with live testing and explanation of steam distillation principles for off-grid water security.
More terrible economic news and what I am doing to make it through the crisis
Practical steps for building resilience during economic uncertainty through incremental daily preparedness actions.
Don't Let Wild Weather Destroy Your Harvest
Soil moisture and water management techniques to protect crops from drought and flooding using landscape design and natural water storage systems.