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
A Food Growing Journey: Polyculture Gardening, Hugelkultur, and Food Forest Updates
28-minute walkthrough of polyculture gardening on a mountain homestead: hugelkultur terrace management, potato and blueberry interplanting, celery integration, and food forest maturation.
The Journey to Growing Our Own Food (5 Years Later)
Five-year progress update on establishing a productive orchard and raising animals toward household food self-sufficiency and sustainable living.
Harvest Tales ~2025: Autumn Garden and Food Forest Tour
29-minute walkthrough of a BC mountain homestead's autumn harvest: grapes on trees, apples, melons in wicking towers, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, onion curing, and food forest design.
Living Off the Grid - The Grind for Water
Short walkthrough of water sourcing, collection, and daily management challenges on an off-grid mountain property during low-snow periods.
Living Off Grid: The Grind for Water
21-minute walkthrough of off-grid water sourcing on a mountain homestead when snow melt and rain collection fail; practical solutions for livestock and household needs.
Growing New Soil & Mushrooms
Sixteen minutes on pathway composting, worm castings, mushroom cultivation, and potato harvesting on a homestead garden.
Solo winter bushcraft trip - canvas tent, wood stove, saw horse, cooking tripod, homemade axe
46-minute walkthrough of winter basecamp setup in Danish wilderness: hot-tent heating, firewood processing, open-fire cooking, and homemade tool construction (axe, knife, drinking cup).
The Secret to a Breathtaking Food Garden: 5 Design Tips for Any Budget
Five practical garden design principles—from flowers and water features to hardscaping—for building productive food gardens on any budget.
The Joys of Harvest & Preserving the Garden
22-minute walkthrough of late-season harvest and preservation: fermenting hot sauce and pickles, storing melons and root crops for winter.
Slow Living in My Stone House — Cooking & Building Off the Grid, Ep. 34
Episode 34: Building bar stools from reclaimed oak, installing a wood-fired oven spit, and slow-roasting a 13kg lamb over 3.5 hours in an off-grid stone house.
4 Years Becoming Self Sufficient (Full Farm Tour)
Tour of a 4-year homesteading project in Australia: land development, food production systems, and progress toward household food self-sufficiency.
Elementi Fermentation Kit: Gear Review for Home Fermentation
Two-minute walkthrough of a fermentation kit designed for beginners—glass weights, self-burping lids, and mason jar compatibility for making sauerkraut, kimchi, and pickles at home.
Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway: Review
Review of Hemenway's permaculture guide for small-space gardeners: building soil, water conservation, biodiversity, and low-effort food production.
Storing Apples: Gold Rush Apple Variety and Long-Term Storage Techniques
Five-minute practical guide to selecting and storing the Gold Rush apple variety for long-term household food preservation.
1500 Days Homesteading: A Journey to Self Sufficiency (Full Tour)
22-minute tour of a working homestead after 1500 days, documenting food production systems and sustainable self-sufficiency practices.
A Complete Walkthrough of Our Property and the Current State
23-minute tour of a newly acquired homestead, covering land assessment for water flow, wind patterns, sunlight, soil fertility, and planned structures for self-sufficiency.
Best Red Fleshed Apple Types, Blood Apples Impress Again
45-minute walkthrough of red-fleshed apple seedling varieties coming into season, with tasting notes and cultivation insights for food production and storage.
Building A Cozy Outdoor Kitchen Step By Step, Ep. 33
26-minute walkthrough building a hand-finished oak outdoor kitchen around a stone fireplace: counters, bar, support beams, and grill surround using reclaimed wood and traditional techniques.
Permaculture forest garden
Building a multi-layer food forest under established apple trees using permaculture and no-dig methods: plant selection, soil building, and wildlife habitat.
How to Get Ready for Fur Trapping the Right Way and Avoid Mistakes
Six-minute walkthrough of fur-trapping fundamentals, common beginner mistakes, and lessons learned from years of hands-on practice.
A wood stove meal for power outages
Seventeen minutes cooking a homemade meal on a wood stove as practice for feeding the family during grid-down scenarios, with brainstorming on alternative-stove meal options.
DIY Bug Spray With American Beauty Berry
Seven-minute walkthrough harvesting American beauty berry and making a homemade mosquito repellent for garden pest control without synthetic chemicals.
Homestead Update Autumn 2025
Mid-November garden tour showcasing autumn harvests, seasonal tasks, and ongoing food production on a Welsh homestead using no-dig methods.
How to Make Easy Homemade Almond Milk
Five-minute walkthrough on making almond milk at home using basic kitchen equipment, a practical food-production skill for self-sufficiency.
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
Friends Taste Test New Red Fleshed Apple Varieties In The Orchard
Seventy-minute orchard walkthrough featuring red-fleshed apple variety evaluation, taste-testing, and notes on flavor, storage, and cultivation characteristics.
3 Days Camping & Fishing Alaska's Wilderness (Near Dick Proenneke's Cabin)
Three days in remote Alaska wilderness: shelter building in rain, fire management, fishing for food, water sourcing, and improvised camp logistics with family.
Final Steps of Building a Florida Food Forest
Step-by-step walkthrough of completing a permaculture food forest in central Florida, including sweet potato planting and subtropical plant selection.
Emergency Water Filter: Make a DIY Water Filter from Bark
Step-by-step walkthrough for building a functional water filter from tree bark, charcoal, and natural materials found in the field.
Testing New Apple Varieties: Red Fleshed, Performance Evaluation
57-minute walkthrough evaluating new apple varieties for home cultivation, including flavor, storage potential, and performance in diverse growing conditions.
Cats and Chickens
Becky shares hard-won lessons on protecting chicks from cats, managing feral predators, and selecting trainable farm dogs for flock safety.
Why Do Permaculture Gardens Grow So Much Food? Tour and Harvest
44-minute garden tour and harvest walkthrough demonstrating polyculture planting, symbiotic plant relationships, soil building, and food production yields in a BC zone-5 homestead.
Vitamin Deficiency In Chickens: How To See It And How To Fix It
Becky explains how to address vitamin deficiency in chickens through daily meat protein and regular deworming with diatomaceous earth.
How Doing LESS Transformed My Food Garden & Saved My Sanity
Twelve-minute walkthrough of five core gardening fundamentals—water, soil, sunlight, timing, pest management—and how simplifying your approach builds sustainable food production.
10 Cheap Household Items That Still Work After an EMP or Solar Flare Blackout
Eleven-minute walkthrough of ten low-tech household items that remain functional in a grid-down scenario caused by EMP or solar storm, covering water, light, tools, and cooking.
3 Reasons I Love Keeping Backyard Chickens
Becky shares lessons from years of chicken keeping, covering coop design evolution, egg collection timing to avoid crows, and how chickens naturally manage horse manure in pastures.
Keep It Simple: My Home Apothecary #25
Building a home apothecary with budget-friendly herbs and remedies—part 25 of a series on herbal preparation and preservation.
July Garden Tour | Productive, Efficient No Till Garden
Walkthrough of a no-till organic garden in mid-summer growth, demonstrating layout, soil management, and yield efficiency from a homesteader using this method.
Design a Low-Effort Food Garden That Actually Feeds You (Complete Guide)
21-minute walkthrough on permaculture-based food garden design: site analysis, layout, water strategy, bed types, and plant selection for year-round production while working full-time.
AquaTru Reverse Osmosis Water Filter Review VS Gravity Filters
Side-by-side comparison of reverse osmosis and gravity water filtration systems, with demonstration of setup and use for household water purification.
DIY Hydroponics Fertilizer: Truth About Homemade Nutrients
Six-minute breakdown of DIY hydroponic fertilizer methods: what actually works, common pitfalls, and whether homemade nutrients are worth the effort for food growers.
What Every Gardener Wishes They Knew About Essential Tools
Guide to eight essential, durable gardening tools that handle 95% of tasks without waste or gimmickry—gloves, cutting tools, trowels, shovels, rakes, and watering gear.
Homesteading Ways: Making the Best of It
Three-minute walkthrough of repairing and repurposing an old chicken tractor from scrap materials to solve an immediate animal-husbandry problem.
Homestead Animals: New Chickens, Baby Bunnies and More
Tour of a working homestead's newest animals—chickens, rabbits, goats, and pigs—with practical context on raising livestock for food and self-sufficiency.
5 Chicken Mistakes Beginners Make (and How to Fix Them) | Backyard Homestead Guide
Five common chicken-keeping errors beginners encounter and practical fixes: straight-run surprises, coop upgrades, predator proofing, and flock integration.
How to Make a Potato Grow Tower
Six-minute walkthrough of building a DIY potato tower from garden scraps—a low-cost, space-efficient growing method adaptable to available materials.
Camping in Arctic Circle with No Tent (-26 Degrees)
33-minute solo survival in sub-zero Alaska: snow cave construction, thermal management, cold-weather gear evaluation, and hunting ptarmigan on tundra.
Raising Chicks the Right Way: Moving to Grass, Adding Shelter, and Flock Growth Tips
Eight-minute walkthrough of moving chicks to pasture, building a second coop, expanding the flock, plus updates on sheep, orchard, and berry plantings on a family homestead.
Making Perfect Sourdough Khorasan Sandwich Bread with Tender, Moist Crumb
22-minute walkthrough on baking sourdough sandwich bread from freshly milled khorasan flour using a Vitamix blender as a makeshift grain mill.