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
Build a Life That's Hard to Disrupt: Living Without Electricity
Learn to design a homestead with resilient systems for water, food, cooking, heating, and sanitation that function without grid electricity.
Sprinklers Won't Save Your Garden
Efficient irrigation techniques for food gardens: drip systems, mulch, timing, and olla pots to deliver water at the roots and reduce waste.
Arizona's Water Crisis Is Here
How Arizona's depleting water supply affects farmland, food costs, property values, and household economic readiness in the Southwest.
Does Adding Cayenne to Chicken Feed Actually Work? (What We Do and Why)
How capsaicin in cayenne pepper affects chicken physiology, why it may boost winter egg production, dosing guidance, and complementary strategies for year-round laying.
I Still Can't Believe This Happened: Onion Bolting and Recovery
What causes onions to bolt prematurely, how to identify at-risk plants, and preservation methods for partially-salvaged crops.
Very Successful Bone Broth with Collagen
Short walkthrough on making bone broth and extracting collagen for food preservation and nutritional resilience.
I Built This Off-Grid Log Cabin Alone With Hand Tools (Complete Walkthrough)
Tour of a fully off-grid cabin: hand-tool construction, wood-heat systems, spring water, root cellar storage, and composting toilet.
Pressure Canning Siphoning: Why Your Jars Lose Liquid & How to Stop It
Nine-minute walkthrough of siphoning in pressure canning: why it happens, four main causes (pressure fluctuations, rapid cooling, air bubbles, improper lids), and how to prevent and assess it.
How to Lacto Ferment Peppers or Any Vegetables: The Easiest Two-Ingredient Method
19-minute walkthrough on preserving garden vegetables through salt-water fermentation, using fresh peppers as an example; covers harvesting, prep, salt ratios, jar setup, and readiness indicators.
Biodegradable and Eco-Friendly Straws Growing in Your Garden
One-minute walkthrough on growing edible straw plants in a home garden as a self-sufficient alternative to purchased straws.
What Lambing Season Looks Like on Our Farm | Lambing 2026
27-minute walkthrough of lambing season on a South Australian farm: birth assistance, orphan lamb care, daily animal husbandry, and herd management across 200+ lambs.
Find Water Near You Without Digging a Well
Scout your neighborhood for creeks, ponds, and streams using Google Maps to map backup water sources before an emergency.
How I Run a Washing Machine Off Grid
Practical walkthrough of operating a washing machine on an off-grid homestead without grid power — power sourcing, water handling, and system integration.
Make your own mayo using real whole food ingredients
One-minute immersion-blender mayo recipe using olive oil, egg, lemon juice, and mustard; addresses ingredient quality and food preservation fundamentals.
Quiche Lorraine Shelf-Stable Recipe: Building Better Prepper Pantry Meals
23-minute walkthrough building a shelf-stable quiche in a jar using freeze-dried ingredients, with ingredient sourcing and pantry strategy for long-term food storage.
Will We Ever Stop Working? Thoughts on a Life of Manual Chores and Self-Sufficiency
Reflections on long-term sustainability while making sauerkraut—balancing manual labor, food preservation, and the practical realities of off-grid mountain homesteading.
Summer Rains Brought a Shiitake Flush
Short walkthrough of shiitake mushroom cultivation triggered by seasonal rainfall—a practical food-production technique for home growing.
How to Store Water Long-Term for Emergencies | Emergency Water Tanks
Step-by-step guide to emergency water storage: choosing containers, sanitizing, treating with bleach, managing shelf life, and rotating supplies using 30-gallon stackable tanks.
Rainwater Harvesting: 50,000 Gallons a Year?
How to calculate your roof's water-catchment potential and design a rainwater system for urban and suburban homes.
4 Ways to Preserve Green Beans
Step-by-step instructions for fermenting, freezing, freeze-drying, and canning green beans, with storage life for each method.
Real and Deep: In a World of Fakes
Explore how real whole foods nourish body and soul, and why cultivating genuine community matters more than convenient substitutes.
From Dozen to 10 Eggs = Real Shrinkflation
Short analysis of shrinkflation in egg pricing and food inflation trends hitting 50-year highs, with real-world purchase data.
All My Water Jugs Are Full. Here's the Problem.
Forty-one second walkthrough of a self-refilling water storage system using rainwater catchment and gravity feed to maintain household supply.
Is Self-Sufficient Living Still Possible? My Honest Take
Eleven-minute walkthrough of building a resilient homestead: integrating animals, water systems, crop diversity, and soil health to survive drought and crop failures.
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
Water Storage: Are You Doing It Wrong?
Forty-five minutes on common water-storage mistakes, expiration management, and protecting supplies from flooding and moisture damage.
My Biggest RV Upgrades for Endless Boondocking
24-minute walkthrough of RV power, solar, and water-filtration upgrades for sustained off-grid living, including LiFePO4 battery systems and portable filtration.
Greg interviews Jennifer Noland, a passionate grazer in Driggs Idaho
Interview with a regenerative grazer on rotational pasture management, livestock husbandry practices, and building food production on small acreage.
Why I Stopped Planting and Started Building Soil
Regenerative farming approach prioritizing soil health and livestock integration over immediate planting—designing self-sustaining food systems from the ground up.
Emergency Water Storage Methods for Hurricanes and Power Outages
36-second walkthrough of safe potable water storage in bathtubs using liners like a Water Bob for disaster preparedness.
Economic collapse or military conflict: are you ready?
Evaluate preparedness priorities for major disruption scenarios and review water storage solutions.
I Have No Room Left to Store It!
Complete year-round beekeeping guide covering setup, maintenance, harvest, winterization, and spring reopening for food production.
Regenerative Design Doesn't Need 1000 Acres
How to optimize food production and land management on small acreage using regenerative principles like adaptive grazing and landscape observation.
One Easy Addition Transformed Our Wicking Bed into an All-Season Greenhouse
21-minute walkthrough of a simple modification that extends a wicking-bed garden into winter production, with hands-on demonstration of the build.
The Emergency Food Prep Most People Forget
Store comfort-food ingredients alongside survival rations to maintain morale and normalcy during grid-down scenarios.
15 Things You Need Before a UK Winter Power Cut
Checklist of 15 practical steps UK households can take before a winter power cut: warmth, water, food, communication, lighting, and family planning—no bunkers or expensive gear required.
Episode 7: The Parasite in Your Fridge — 10,000 Sick, a New War Pact & the Food Supply Lie
Understand cyclospora outbreak risks, food system fragility, and oral rehydration techniques that prevent severe dehydration.
You Don't Need Acres to Grow Your Own Food
Nine-minute tour of a quarter-acre backyard garden: fruit trees, chickens, corn, and vegetables with tips for maximizing small spaces and fixing mid-season mistakes.
More Printing = Higher Prices! Food Keeps Rising
Analysis of how monetary expansion drives food-price inflation and what households are experiencing in real-time cost increases.
3 Days Solo Survival Camping in Rain Forest: Bushcraft Shelter Under Fallen Tree, Fish Cooking
24-minute bushcraft demonstration: building a dugout shelter under a fallen tree, fire-making in rain, fishing, and primitive cooking in an Australian rain forest.
Food Shortages, Bank Panic, and Global Instability: What Governments Know
Analysis of resource protection, agricultural decline, and coordinated government response to coming instability.
Cyberattacks Hit U.S. Water Systems in 12 States: What Households Can Do
Recent cyberattacks on American water treatment facilities across multiple states: what the vulnerability means for drinking water safety and how households can protect their supply.
Why Farmers Use Goats to Close Out Summer
How rotational grazing with portable fencing clears vegetation while building soil fertility—a practical technique for homestead food production.
Canning Pie Fillings
Panel discussion on canning pie fillings for long-term storage, hosted by Gil of Camppatton Family Compound with expert canners Tammy McNeill and Mark of ChefTech.
The Fastest Way to Dry Salmon in the Wild
Step-by-step guide to smoking and drying fresh salmon over an open fire for long-term preservation, using traditional Alaskan wilderness methods.
Are you wasting half your garden's water? Stop now!
Reduce garden water loss through early-morning deep watering, mulching, and soil health practices that maximize growing efficiency.
When you live 100 percent on rainwater, you love seeing this
40-second look at a rainwater harvesting system in operation on an off-grid homestead.
Summer Garden Tour: Squash, Asparagus & Vegetable Growing Methods
Ten-minute walkthrough of a productive home garden in summer, covering vegetable cultivation techniques for squash, asparagus, and other crops to ensure reliable harvests.
After Six Years I've Learned This Is When My Growing Season Begins
Twenty-two-minute walkthrough of planting, soil prep, and crop selection on a six-year off-grid Arizona homestead, timed to monsoon rains and rainwater harvesting systems.