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
The Strait of Hormuz Is Closed Again
How closure of a critical shipping chokepoint affects fuel, fertilizer, food supplies, and modern supply chains — and what households should consider.
How to Collect Calendula Seeds for the Next Season
Four-minute walkthrough on harvesting and saving calendula seeds for year-round garden renewal without repurchasing.
This Is My Health Insurance
How a decade of poor health and desk work led to quitting to build a half-acre homestead; why daily physical labor growing food became more effective than insurance premiums.
3 Days Solo Survival in Heavy Rain: Building a Cave Shelter with Fireplace, Bushcraft Camping
42-minute hands-on demonstration of shelter construction, fireplace building, and primitive cooking techniques during a multi-day wilderness survival challenge in wet conditions.
Garden Myth #3: How Much Land?
Debunks the myth that productive food gardens require acres; shows how to maximize yields in small spaces like window boxes and raised beds using permaculture zoning.
Make These 2 Freeze-Dried Meals in a Jar Right Now if You Want to Survive Any Emergency
34-minute walkthrough of two complete freeze-dried meal recipes (BBQ chicken sweet potato bowls, southwest corn chowder): ingredient selection, jar layering, storage tips, and customization for dietary preferences.
Growing Olives in Southwest Virginia: Container Fruit Trees for Home Production
Testing whether olive trees grown in containers can produce 20 pounds annually in Southwest Virginia; expanding on greenhouse food production for small-space homesteads.
Food Recalls Are Skyrocketing: Latest FDA Alerts and What You Need to Know
Overview of current food recalls, contamination outbreaks, and an FDA proposal to use ionizing radiation on foods—what it means for your household food safety.
Garden Myth #2: The Watering Mistake
39-second breakdown of why consistent soil moisture beats frequent heavy watering for healthy plants and better harvests.
This Growing Season Has Been Brutal... Here's What Survived
27-minute walkthrough of a coastal garden's performance through extreme weather—cold snaps, heat waves, drought, heavy rain—with harvest updates, crop failures, and practical lessons for the rest of the season.
Surviving the High Desert with SERE Specialist | Finding Food, Water, and Shelter
54-minute walkthrough of survival skills for semi-arid environments: water sourcing via solar stills, shelter construction, and edible plant identification from a SERE trainer.
8 Reasons Your Canning Jars Didn't Seal
Learn the most common causes of canning seal failure and how to troubleshoot, prevent, and safely handle unsealed jars.
Mason Jars: The Ultimate Prepping Tool No One Talks About
Explore practical applications of mason jars for food storage, water treatment, fermentation, and herbal medicine in a self-reliant home.
Catch, Clean and Cook with Only Pocket Primal Kit
Ten-minute walkthrough of using a pocket-sized multi-tool fire kit to catch, prepare, and cook a fish using only natural resources and the kit's components.
Water Filter Hack: Sawyer Mini with Jerry Can Gravity Filtration
Short tip on adapting a Sawyer Mini filter to a standard jerry can for gravity-fed water filtration in camp or vehicle settings.
8 Food Items That Will Skyrocket in Price in 2026
Identify eight food categories likely to see significant price increases over the next year and plan storage accordingly.
Extra Chickens: Define Your Market
Planning before buying: how to assess whether chickens feed your family or generate income, and why most first-time homesteaders skip this critical step.
28 Foods Containing Plastic: Microplastics in Everyday Groceries
21-minute walkthrough of foods where researchers have found microplastic contamination, which foods have highest levels, and practical steps to reduce family exposure.
Massive Drill Rig Arrives—Securing Water & Power for Our Homestead
Norwegian couple documents drilling a new well, installing a frost-free hydrant, planting potatoes using no-dig methods, and building layered backup systems (old well, wood heat, future solar) while grid-connected.
Healthy Chickens, Healthy Pasture: Coop Spacing and Rotational Grazing
42-minute walkthrough on calculating proper chicken coop spacing for stationary and free-range setups to avoid overgrazing and keep birds healthy.
June Garden Check In: Spring Maintenance for Thriving Harvests
Garden maintenance walkthrough covering soil health monitoring, water and nutrient assessment, and early-stage crop management to prevent losses.
7 Prepper Pantry Mistakes Destroying Your Survival Plan
Fifteen-minute walkthrough of seven common long-term food storage errors—oxygen exposure, pests, temperature, nutrition gaps—with fixes for each.
Don't Rush Into Farm Animals: Five Things to Know First
Planning checklist before buying livestock: fencing, shelter, feed, space, budget, and animal selection to avoid costly beginner mistakes.
Complete Seed Saving Guide for Every Gardener
Twelve-minute walkthrough of seed saving techniques: choosing open-pollinated varieties, harvesting at peak maturity, dry and wet processing, storage for viability, and building an emergency seed bank.
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
The Secrets of Good Soil, Myth 1
Why you don't need perfect soil to start gardening—how composting kitchen scraps, mulching, and returning organic matter build productive soil over time.
A Homesteader's Seat at the Secretary of Agriculture's Table | Interview with AJ Richards
54-minute interview with a Wyoming homesteader invited to advise the Secretary of Agriculture on public-land grazing, regenerative agriculture policy, and direct-farm meat sales.
Building a Cabin When You Don't Know What You're Doing Takes Time
Twenty-six minutes of cabin construction, garden work, and off-grid daily life on a Swedish mountain homestead. First-year progress and lessons learned.
What Morning Chores Really Look Like on a Homestead
Real-time walkthrough of daily pasture rotation chores and their benefits for livestock, soil health, and grazing efficiency.
Wild Edible Series - Blackjack
53-second identification and foraging guide to blackjack, a wild edible plant for food self-sufficiency.
Outdoor Cooking Trick
Stefan demonstrates a practical technique for cooking outdoors, showcasing improvised methods for field food preparation.
Growing My Own Groceries: July Garden Tour | Zone 4A Minnesota
54-minute garden walkthrough showing vegetable production, preservation methods, and seasonal growing challenges in a cold climate with the goal of producing a year's food supply.
Wild Edible Series - Shepherd's Purse
37-second identification and basic information about shepherd's purse, a common wild edible plant for foraging and food security.
Multiple Ships Hit in Gulf; Kyiv in Flames—WW3 Preparations Intensify
Analysis of Persian Gulf maritime incidents and Eastern European military escalation, with survival food sourcing recommendations.
A Little Self-Reliance: Muscadine Grapes
Seven-second look at an 80-foot muscadine grape trellis established 10 years ago with minimal gardening experience required.
How to Freeze a Year's Worth of Broccoli
Step-by-step guide to freezing broccoli for long-term storage, with guidelines on blanching, freezer duration (3 months to 12 months), and inventory management.
Broccoli Sprouts: The Ultimate Super Nutrient Concentration
Learn how to grow nutrient-dense broccoli sprouts at home for storage and nutrition security.
Easy Preserved Lemons, Limes & Oranges: 2-Ingredient Fermented Citrus
22-minute walkthrough of salt-fermented citrus preservation: selecting fruit, packing jars, fermentation timeline, storage, and four recipes using preserved citrus.
From City Life to Full Time Farm Girl: Interview With Ann Scott
Ann Scott discusses her transition from urban living to full-time homesteading and farm operations.
Unlock Garlic's Power: Boost Immunity with Raw Allicin
Learn how to prepare and consume raw garlic to harness allicin's immune-boosting properties for health resilience.
Why Chickens Refuse To Sleep On The Floor
Why chickens need elevated roosts in a coop, and two functional designs (galvanized poles and cut branches) that meet the birds' instinctive safety needs.
Ghee: From Skin Savior to Gut Healer — Amazing Uses
Learn multiple practical applications of ghee for health and homestead use, from topical skin care to digestive support.
Groundwork Begins Our Biggest Homestead Project Yet
34-minute walkthrough of off-grid infrastructure work: installing water and power lines, land clearing, access roads, and renovating abandoned stone structures on a 5-acre rural property.
Books for Every Homesteader: A Chat with Sawdust Publishing
Interview with a homesteading publisher showcasing recommended books on food production, animal husbandry, and self-sufficient living for beginning and experienced homesteaders.
Our Life Is a Mess (And I've Never Felt Richer)
Ten-year journey building a debt-free half-acre homestead: why financial independence through small-space living, food production, and intentional frugality outweighs conventional wealth.
Three Underrated C's: Crappie, Cornbread & Coffee | The Perfect Catch and Cook
Fourteen-minute catch-and-cook walkthrough: fishing for crappie, field dressing and frying fresh fish, baking cornbread in camp, and brewing coffee outdoors.
3 Days Solo Survival Camping: Primitive Fish Cooking, Bushcraft Skills, Tent Shelter
19-minute walkthrough of wilderness survival: catching and cooking fish, building shelter in rain, primitive fireplace construction, and camp management in Australian backcountry.
Every Egg Has Potential: Identifying Fertile Eggs and Hatching Chickens
How to identify fertile eggs from a mixed flock and choose between broody-hen or incubator hatching to grow your chicken population.
Is THIS the Store Where You Can Find ALL of Your Prepping Gear on a Budget?
28-minute walkthrough of Aldi's emergency food storage options: grains, beans, canned proteins, shelf-stable meals, and what to look for when building a frugal prepper pantry.