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
Inside a Mobile Chicken Coop
Tour of a slatted-floor mobile chicken coop design: how daily rotation stacks eggs, pest control, and pasture fertilization into one system.
Do Less, Preserve More
Learn which harvested foods deserve preservation effort and which to use fresh, saving time and resources.
The Deadfall Trap: Design and Construction
Twenty-two minutes on building and tuning a deadfall trap for small game and larger animals, with scalability principles for different prey sizes.
Pan Fishing Tips & Retro Gear: Why the Zebco 202 Still Catches Fish
Practical panfishing techniques and tips for catching bluegill and crappie using the classic Zebco 202 reel—low-cost, reliable gear for food self-sufficiency.
How I Preserve a Year's Worth of Food Without Burnout
Rethink pantry strategy: prioritize foods that preserve well, use fermentation and root cellaring, and skip what's cheaper to buy preserved.
3 Gravity Water Filters Explained and Compared — Which Is Best?
Side-by-side comparison of Berkey, Berkefeld, and Membrane Solutions gravity filters: pricing, filtration capacity, features, and value for preppers.
How To Never Go Hungry When Lost In The Wilderness
Three-minute walkthrough on setting and positioning small-game survival snares for wilderness food procurement.
Preparing Ewes for Lambing Season: Scanning, Fencing, and Pasture Management
Walk through pre-lambing preparation on a working farm: electronic ID scanning, building grazing paddocks, pre-lambing nutrition, and moving ewes to fresh pasture.
Nettle: The Herbal Superhero for Women, Men, and Immunity
Learn the nutritional and medicinal properties of nettle and how to prepare it as tea for immune support.
Turning Ruined Peaches into a Sweet Treat
Converting damaged or overripe peaches into preserved sweets: practical food preservation technique for homestead surplus.
Brooder Basics Every Chick Owner Should Know
50-minute walkthrough of the 28-day hatching cycle: managing an incubator, brooding chicks after hatch, and initial care setup for a backyard flock.
10 Dirt-Cheap Household Items Every Prepper Needs
Practical household supplies that serve double duty in emergencies, with a focus on safe water disinfection methods.
7 Immune Boosting Foods She Swears By For Years
Learn seven nutrient-dense foods that support immune function as part of a homestead diet.
Garden Pests Don't Stand a Chance Against This
31-second demonstration of using diatomaceous earth as an organic barrier against garden pests on eggplants, without synthetic chemicals.
Adding Seed Saving and Soil Blocking to Your Food Security System
Seed saving and soil blocking techniques to build a self-renewing food garden that reduces dependence on purchased seedlings and annual seed purchases.
Boost Your Gut Health: The Power of Fermented Foods
Learn fermentation techniques for preserving food and supporting digestive health using simple equipment and salt.
Deeper Sonar Initial Review and Testing | First Look from a Canoe
Eleven-minute hands-on test of a portable sonar fish finder from a canoe, covering setup, app connectivity, accuracy, and practicality for ultralight fishing.
Daily Life - War Time Russia | And How To Get Rid of Giant Hogweed
Learn practical methods for identifying and safely removing giant hogweed, a hazardous invasive plant threatening gardens and property.
Stockpile THESE in Your Prepper Pantry Before Prices Increase Even More
31-minute walkthrough of specific shelf-stable foods and freeze-dried staples to prioritize for a prepper pantry as prices rise, with current sale options.
Honey Fermented Garlic Immune Boosting Recipe
Learn to make a simple two-ingredient fermented garlic and honey preserve for immune support during cold and flu season.
Save Water In Your Garden With This Hack
Two moisture-retention techniques for gardens: mulching to reduce evaporation and terracing to manage water spread, especially useful during drought.
Your Food Supply Depends on This Dying Aquifer | Here's What's Happening
Nine-minute analysis of the Ogallala Aquifer's depletion, its impact on agricultural yields and food production, and what changing water availability means for regional food security.
TIC TAC Adjustable Camp Stove - Bushcraft Hacks
Three-minute review and demonstration of an adjustable TIC TAC camp stove for off-grid cooking and bushcraft applications.
AquaTru Carafe Reverse Osmosis Water Filter Review
Eight-minute side-by-side comparison of the AquaTru Carafe and Classic reverse osmosis countertop filters, with NSF certification breakdown and performance specs.
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
How to Make Eating Carnivore Affordable with Top-Quality Meat
Two-year case study on sourcing affordable high-quality meat for a carnivore diet, with practical sourcing strategies and cost-saving tactics.
The Truth About Sterilizing Canning Jars
Learn when jar sterilization is actually necessary for safe water bath and pressure canning, and common mistakes that cause seal failures.
It All Started With 11 Chickens
A couple documents their growing backyard chicken flock: breed selection, mixing homegrown feed, and free-range management on their Adelaide homestead.
Unlock Your Health: Sulfur Rich Foods & Glutathione
Learn which sulfur-rich foods support glutathione production for immune and detoxification health.
Red Onion Secrets: Unlock Health Benefits Now
Learn the nutritional and medicinal properties of red onions and how to incorporate them into your homestead growing and food preservation plans.
When you know exactly where your food comes from because...
A 29-second pep talk on starting small with food self-sufficiency: bread-baking, herb gardens, foraging classes, hunting, and community gardens as entry points to opting out of commercial food systems.
Scatter Asparagus Seeds Once, Harvest Forever
How to propagate asparagus from seed without replanting: let mature plants self-seed and establish volunteer beds naturally.
The Cover Crop That Feeds Your Garden
59-second walkthrough of hairy vetch: how to identify it, why it fixes nitrogen, and the chop-and-drop method for natural soil fertilization.
Eat Onion Flowers: Delicious & Healthy Homestead Secret
Learn to identify and harvest edible onion flowers as a nutritious homestead food source.
Emergency Cooking: Reliable Methods When Power Fails
53-second overview of backup cooking options (propane stoves, backpacking stoves, canning stoves) and fuel storage for grid-down scenarios.
Emergency Water: Your 2-Week Supply and Beyond
One-minute overview of 55-gallon drums for emergency water storage: capacity, durability, weight, and cleaning considerations for long-term preparedness.
Grow Huge Onions: 2 Secrets for Massive Harvests
Learn two key techniques for growing substantially larger onions and improving your harvest yield.
Winter Fridge Hacks: Freezer Meals Keep Cold
46-second walkthrough: freeze soups and casseroles into blocks to double as ice packs, extending freezer coldness during power outages.
American Crop Yields Down | Bear Brief 29JUN26
Analysis of declining US crop yields and implications for food security and agricultural planning.
Government Warning on Food, Oil & Interest Rates Signal a Global Crisis
Analysis of government food warnings, oil markets, and interest rate signals as indicators of economic and supply disruption risk.
Free Food Just Appeared In My Garden
How to spot and harvest volunteer plants that reseed themselves, turning garden beds into low-maintenance food production without replanting effort.
Making Cream Cheese
Eight-minute walkthrough of cream cheese production from basic ingredients, a foundational dairy preservation skill for self-sufficient food storage.
An Amazing Doomsday Prepper Property
Walk through a thoroughly prepared SHTF homestead to evaluate its defensive design, food storage, water systems, and self-sufficiency infrastructure.
Honey Brand Investigation: Which Are Real and How to Identify Quality
Investigates popular US honey brands for authenticity, explains pollen testing and ultra-filtration, and teaches how to identify genuinely high-quality honey before buying.
Unlock Your Health: The Power of Magnesium Foods
Learn which magnesium-rich foods support health and how to incorporate them into homestead diets.
Making Extremely Nutritious Bone Broth Then Canning It
Step-by-step walkthrough of making nutrient-dense bone broth and pressure-canning it for long-term storage.
Gardening Secret: Boost Your Plants' Health Easily
Quick techniques to improve plant health and productivity in your garden.
We Cleared the Most Dangerous Part of Our Abandoned Land
32-minute walkthrough of land restoration on an off-grid homestead: clearing overgrown terrain, removing dead trees, managing erosion, chipping biomass, and making biochar for soil building.
Gardening for Resilience: Growing Food Without the Store
Twelve-minute walkthrough of breeding resilient crop varieties and landrace gardening to achieve food independence for a family on half an acre without buying seeds or store supplies.