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.
Showing 511 videos · runtime Under 5 min
Top picks in Food & Water
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Making Yogurt with Yogurt
Three-minute walkthrough of yogurt fermentation using existing yogurt as a starter culture for continuous home production.
Why You Need More Than One Water Source
How to build water security through layered redundancy: combining storage, surface-water purification, and backup sources to maintain supply during utility outages.
DIY Water Filter: Extend Your System's Life
52-second walkthrough: build a simple pre-filter from sand, gravel, and charcoal to extend the life of primary filtration systems or filter rain-barrel and creek water.
The Ultimate Off-Grid Forest Drink: Chaga Tea
Twenty-one minutes on identifying, harvesting, and brewing chaga mushrooms from the forest as a nutrient-dense winter beverage for off-grid homesteads.
3 Levels of Water Storage You Need Today
How to calculate your household water needs and build a two-week emergency reserve that protects against grid-down, frozen pipes, and utility failure.
DIY Gravity System: Simple & Versatile Setup
Forty-second walkthrough of a DIY gravity water filtration system using Versaflo bags, showing setup and adaptation options.
10 Emergency Foods You Need To Have
Two-minute breakdown of ten shelf-stable foods recommended for emergency food storage, with links to purchasing options.
What Happens When the Water Stops?
How power outages disable both well pump and municipal water systems, and why households need an emergency water plan.
The Secret to Longevity: Growing Your Own Food
Forty-second overview of home gardening as a longevity practice, with practical entry points from container gardening to raised beds and tips on financial returns.
Processing Turkeys
Step-by-step walkthrough of butchering and processing a home-raised turkey for meat and meals.
Too Many Problems Are Hitting the Food System at Once
Analysis of converging pressures on the food supply—energy, fuel, weather, and global shipping—and why early warning signs matter more than empty shelves.
Art of Baking Meat in Mud
Seventeen-minute demonstration of primitive earth-oven cooking technique for wild game in a wilderness setting.
Hand Scythe for Garden Maintenance: Chop-and-Drop Mulching
34-second walkthrough of using a hand scythe ($10 tool) for efficient seasonal garden maintenance, chop-and-drop mulching in beds, and soil management without mechanization.
DIY Gravity System: Simple Setup & Versaflo Hacks
One-minute walkthrough of building a gravity water filter and adapting the Versaflo system with charcoal filters and drinking caps.
Making Your Own Spice Powders
Monday Night Fireside Chat discussion on making spice powders at home, with hosts and guest experts from food preservation and culinary backgrounds.
Dual-Use Gas Mask Canteen
27-second look at the Mira Safety Canteen, a hydration system designed for use in contaminated or dangerous environments.
Managing a Large Garden Efficiently: BCS Tractor and Flail Mower Setup
Walk-through of using a BCS garden tractor with flail mower attachment to manage larger garden plots, reduce labor, and maintain soil health through mechanical mulching.
Why Your Garden Looks 'Bad' But Works Great
A working garden doesn't need to be perfect: how to grow productive food with minimal maintenance, inconsistent input, and real-world constraints.
Growing Cucumbers On Trellises: Space-Efficient Garden Techniques
Garden tour demonstrating why trellising cucumbers saves space and reduces pest damage, with notes on peppers, zucchini, and harvest-ready produce for preservation.
Mulching Over Drip Irrigation: Reduce Water Loss and Build Soil
Step-by-step walkthrough on layering mulch over drip lines to cut evaporation, maintain soil moisture, and use chop-and-drop composting to feed the garden.
What's Ready In The Garden Right Now? Tomato Harvest and Ripening Timeline
Garden walkthrough showing cherry tomato harvest readiness, ripening timelines for different varieties, and why staggered production matters for consistent food supply.
6 Common Garlic Planting Mistakes
Six practical tips for successful garlic cultivation: variety selection, fall timing, clove handling, spacing, orientation, and mulching.
Learn to Trap a Beaver Easily
Step-by-step beaver trapping technique for subsistence hunting and wild food procurement.
Hand Scythe Chop-and-Drop Mulching for Garden Soil Building
Ten-second technique using a $10 hand scythe to turn garden waste into compost in place, boosting soil fertility without hauling or purchased inputs.
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
Stocking Buckets of Survival Food - Thousands of Calories
How to store bulk survival food in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers for long shelf life and low cost per calorie.
How to Build a Garden Bed in 5 Minutes: No-Dig Composting Method
28-minute walkthrough of the no-dig gardening method using cardboard and straw to suppress weeds and build soil for food production without digging.
Cheap Rainwater Catchment for SHTF
Build an affordable rainwater collection system using simple materials and methods for emergency water supply.
Cheap Cooking for SHTF
Learn budget-friendly cooking methods and meal strategies for emergency scenarios when normal utilities may be unavailable.
Beaver Burgers – Catch and Cook
Harvesting, processing, and cooking beaver for subsistence food procurement in the wilderness.
7 Foods That Could Become Currency
Seven shelf-stable foods chosen for barter value and practical utility in a post-collapse or currency-failure scenario.
Step 3 - Making Probiotic Yogurt
Walkthrough on fermenting yogurt at home for food preservation and probiotic production as part of household food self-sufficiency.
Step 1: Mesophilic Yogurt in Instant Pot and Traditional Method
Two-method yogurt culturing tutorial: using an Instant Pot and traditional fermentation for household food preservation and self-sufficiency.
The Difference Between Mesophilic and Thermophilic Yogurt and Why It Matters for Your Gut Health
Fifteen-minute guide to yogurt fermentation: comparing mesophilic and thermophilic cultures, temperature requirements, and health benefits for home food production.
Processing Tomatoes for Canning, Freezing, and Powdering
Live panel discussion on tomato preservation methods—canning, freezing, and powdering—hosted by homesteaders and food-preservation experts with audience Q&A.
Digging Our Potatoes We Planted This Year
Walkthrough of harvesting homegrown potatoes from a homestead garden, demonstrating food production for self-reliance.
Heat Stress in Chickens: Water Management for Flocks Large and Small
How to keep chickens hydrated during extreme heat: gravity-fed water systems for 300-bird operations and small backyard flocks, plus why dehydration is the fastest threat in summer.
Getting More Food Than Your Garden Can Provide: Harvesting Wild Blueberries
Four-minute walkthrough on foraging wild blueberries to supplement garden production, with tips on finding patches and harvesting.
Why Your Chickens Need a Midday Siesta (And How to Time It)
How to synchronize chicken coop access with seasonal sunlight and heat patterns to improve foraging, reduce labor, and adapt your system to changing conditions.
Survival Trap Demonstration
Under-one-minute trap-building walkthrough for wilderness survival and food procurement.
Deep vs Shallow Well Pumps: Which Do You Need?
How to select the right hand pump for your well based on static water level, covering the 25-foot suction limit and mechanical differences.
Outdoor Canning Kitchen Setup: Six Weeks of Lessons Learned
Walkthrough of a backyard canning station using a propane camp stove and work table, with practical takeaways on comfort, efficiency, and keeping heat out of the home.
DIY Lunch Meat
How to make homemade lunch meat with clean ingredients, lower cost, and meal-prep convenience without commercial preservatives.
This Wild Bird is Better Than Chicken
Catch-and-cook demonstration featuring wild bird preparation and cooking in a bushcraft setting.
Homemade Butter: 10 Minutes with Common Kitchen Tools
How to make fresh butter from cream using a stand mixer, hand mixer, blender, or food processor; covers flavor, saltiness, baking considerations, and cost comparison to store-bought.
The Piece of Paper You Need Before Getting a Hand Pump
Why you need your well log before buying a hand pump: how to verify well depth and static water level for off-grid water systems.
What Problems Have You Had When Canning – No. 1468
Live panel discussion on common canning challenges and troubleshooting, hosted by Gil with Tammy McNeill and Mark of ChefTech. Viewer questions encouraged.
What I Wish I Knew Before I Got Chickens
Fifty-one seconds on common beginner chicken-raising mistakes—coop design, fencing, and systems setup—from someone who learned them the hard way.
Canning Pork Shoulder for Shelf Stable Meals
Pressure canning technique for preserving pork shoulder into shelf-stable, ready-to-eat meals without refrigeration.