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
American Farmers Facing Massive Losses as Food Crisis Tightens Supply
Analysis of farm economics: diesel, fertilizer, tariff, and drought impacts on US and global crop yields, and why food costs are rising.
The Truth: Homesteading Won't Save The World... Until It Does
53-minute deep dive into regenerative agriculture myths vs. reality: what actually works on marginal land, the economics of small-scale farming, and honest soil-building strategies for off-grid living.
Building Survival Shelter | Catching Monster & Exploring Abandoned House
20-minute overnight shelter-building walkthrough: constructing a stone shelter under a fallen tree, hand-catching catfish, and navigating an abandoned structure.
Is THIS the Place to Shop for Prepping on a Budget? Trader Joe's Prepper Pantry Tour
33-minute evaluation of Trader Joe's shelf-stable foods, prices, and suitability for emergency food storage and budget prepping.
How Long Could Your Family Survive Without the Grid?
Live class walkthrough: assess your home's resilience across water, food, heat, and power using what you already have, identify which system fails first, and prioritize spending.
How to Catch Grasshoppers and Crickets
Hands-on demonstration of catching and preparing grasshoppers and crickets as wild-foraged protein sources.
Your 72-Hour Kit Is Useless After Day 6 or 9
Audit water storage, medical supplies, and communication gaps in your emergency kit to close realistic survival blind spots.
You Helped Them Once. Then They Came Back.
Scenario modeling on resource security: what happens when neighbors or acquaintances learn you have food stores and return asking for help—and the operational security implications.
No Chemicals in Garden = Safe to Eat
Building healthy, resilient soil through organic matter and soil biology instead of synthetic inputs—a foundation for long-term food security.
HUGE Steak in the NEW Pathfinder Deep Carbon Steel Skillet
Real-fire testing of a 10-inch carbon steel skillet: searing technique, heat management, and why carbon steel is versatile camp cookware for bushcraft and overlanding.
Arapuca Bird Trap
Two-minute walkthrough of building a traditional arapuca bird trap using primitive materials and techniques.
Global Food Shortage Warning, Sanctions and Fertilizer Crisis
Analysis of how Western sanctions, geopolitical conflict, and supply chain disruption are triggering a global food crisis.
Survival Skill - Easy Wild Grouse Clean & Recipe
Step-by-step grouse cleaning and cooking from field harvest to table, demonstrating practical wild-game processing for subsistence food procurement.
Building My Dream Garden From Scratch
Multi-year process of converting steep hillside into terraced garden: contour measurement, layout planning, and greenhouse foundation on uneven ground.
Supply Chain Breaking and the Old World Ending: Get Food and Water
Analysis of concurrent systemic shifts across multiple sectors and why food and water stockpiling should be a priority.
How to Harvest and Preserve Elderberries
31-minute walkthrough on identifying, harvesting, and processing black elderberries into medicinal syrup for cold and flu season.
Why I Started with Land Nobody Wanted
How to evaluate off-grid property (climate, water, soil, regulations, cost) and build independent shelter, water, and food systems over time on affordable land.
Homestead Summer: Wood Finishing, Potato Cultivation, and Portable Shower Setup
Norwegian homesteaders demonstrate wood treatment techniques, potato hilling, kitchen renovation progress, and test a portable shower system for off-grid living.
Heated Tarp Shelter and Goulash: Mountain Overnight Setup
Swiss bushcraft instructor demonstrates heating a tarp shelter and preparing goulash for an overnight mountain stay using practical field techniques.
Stockpile as Much Food as You Can Now
Overview of freeze-dried and emergency food storage options with current discount codes and sourcing strategies.
Why You Should Start Small
Financial and operational strategy for scaling homestead projects incrementally to avoid over-investment, test local markets, and match production to actual family needs.
World's Most Impressive Squirrel Hunting Platform
46-second demonstration of a specialized hunting platform setup for squirrel hunting in the field.
Survival Skill - Sniping Squirrels!
46-second demonstration of a hunting technique for harvesting squirrels as subsistence food in a wilderness setting.
Canning a Year's Worth of Green Beans
Sixteen-minute walkthrough of pressure canning green beans for long-term storage, covering equipment selection and batch processing for annual food preservation.
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
Food Safety Recalls: Salmonella, Metal Contamination, and Cyclospora Outbreak Alert
Current food safety recall summary covering salmonella in baked goods, metal contamination risks, and cyclospora in lettuce — how to identify affected products and protect your pantry.
4 Signs I'd Abandon My Shopping Cart and Get Out
When staying in a store to complete your supply haul becomes riskier than leaving: recognizing crowd dynamics, payment-system failure, and security deterioration.
Building with Timber and Dinners with Family
Episode 171 of daily off-grid living in Swedish Jämtland: timber framing work on the cabin entrance and family meals sourced from the homestead.
Carbon Steel Skillet or Dutch Oven? This 2" Deep Skillet Does BOTH!
Ten-minute camp cooking walkthrough: using a 2-inch carbon steel skillet as a dual-purpose Dutch oven over fire, with heat control, coal-bed techniques, and meal preparation.
Prepare for Food Shortages
Review of freeze-dried survival foods and their nutritional value for emergency food storage planning.
Waterdrop G3P800 Reverse Osmosis Water Filter Review
Five-minute walkthrough of the Waterdrop G3P800 tankless RO system: specs, filtration stages, flow rate, and installation considerations for under-sink water treatment.
Storing potatoes for the winter
Nine-minute walkthrough on preparing and storing potatoes for winter from a homesteader and nurse.
Terrace or Swale? Which One Fixes Your Yard?
How to use contour lines and terrain management (terraces vs. swales) to fix uneven ground and improve water retention on your property.
Survival Skill - Cooking on a Rock
23-minute demonstration of primitive cooking technique using heated rocks, applicable to off-grid and wilderness food preparation.
Giant Turnip
Two-minute demonstration of a large turnip harvest, with notes on turnips as a calorie-dense survival food for people and livestock.
Food Crisis: How Bad Is It and How to Prepare
Assessment of current food supply threats and practical strategies for building food security and reserves.
USDA Beef, Egg, and Grain Report: What It Means for Your Food Storage
Analysis of recent USDA supply data on cattle, grains, and eggs with recommendations for long-term food storage strategy and pantry stocking decisions.
Nearly 50 Million Eggs Recalled — FDA Warns of Serious Health Risk
Breakdown of a major FDA Class I egg recall: what triggered it, health risks, how to check your eggs against recall notices, and safer sourcing alternatives.
Living Fully Off-Grid on a Remote Pacific Island
Tour of a working off-grid homestead in Vanuatu: tropical food production, water systems, shelter, and daily routines of island self-sufficiency.
Steam Canning – Monday Night Fireside Chat No. 1452
Panel discussion on steam canning techniques and food preservation for beginners, hosted by Gil with guest experts from Rebel Canners and ChefTech.
The Transformation From a Lifeless Abandoned Property to The Beginning of an Oasis Full of Life
51-minute walkthrough of six years of land reclamation, planting, water harvesting, and food production systems in a remote mountain homestead.
Coho Salmon Frenzy on Vancouver Island | Catch & Cook
Fifteen minutes on catching coho salmon and smoking the day's catch for preservation, with foraged berries, on Vancouver Island.
Investing In Your Homestead – Where To Start?
Two-hour discussion on prioritizing homestead improvements for food production, water management, and self-sufficiency on rural property.
Don't Make These Preserving Mistakes
Learn practical habits to manage food preservation efficiently, including timing, method selection, and whether you're preserving foods your family will actually eat.
Best Place to Set Up a Regenerative Grazing Operation
Eight-minute walkthrough of site selection criteria for starting a regenerative grazing operation, with focus on pasture management fundamentals.
Foraging: American Elderberry or Pokeberry?
Two-minute walkthrough on identifying edible American elderberry versus toxic pokeberry in the wild—critical skill for safe foraging.
Preparedness vs Faith: What the Bible Really Says
Biblical case for household preparedness: water, food, heat, and power projects with a three-step plan for any living situation, from apartments to acreage.
We found the cheapest state to go off-grid, here's what it actually costs you
Three-year off-grid homesteaders break down the real trade-offs of off-grid living: convenience, health, freedom, and finances — plus which Australian state works out cheapest.
Build a Life That Is Hard to Disrupt
Design resilient home systems for water, power, food, and sanitation that function when grid infrastructure fails.