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
Grow a 4-Hour Food Garden With These 7 EASY Crops
Seven high-yield crops (herbs, greens, berries, cucurbits, nightshades, roots, fruit trees) designed for balconies and backyards on a 4-hour weekly time budget.
Maintain Your Jerusalem Artichoke Bed for Success & Creeping Charlie Management
Six-minute walkthrough on refurbishing a Jerusalem artichoke bed for optimal production and managing invasive Creeping Charlie weed spread.
Moving Day for Our Chicks: Are They Ready for the Coop?
Walkthrough of transitioning chicks from brooder to coop, including readiness signs, coop setup for cold weather, and timing strategy.
Turmeric Harvest March | Zone 8a
Nine-minute walkthrough of harvesting turmeric across multiple seasons in zone 8a, demonstrating year-round production from just six plants.
Spring No-Till Garden: Easy Prep & Planting Potatoes
Five-minute walkthrough of no-till garden preparation and potato planting, comparing soil-building methods and demonstrating the creator's preferred cover-crop approach.
3 Signs Your Chicks Are Ready for the Coop
Quick guide to identifying when brooder chicks are ready to transition outdoors, with warning signs to watch for if timing is premature.
Top 10 Protein-Rich Foods to Add to Your Survival Prep List
Survey of 10 protein sources suitable for long-term storage and emergency use, covering canned meats, freeze-dried options, and pantry staples.
Castrating Piglets: Learn This Skill
Two-minute walkthrough of piglet castration technique, a foundational livestock-management skill for homestead pig farming.
Lazy Composting Yields Black Gold!
Composting walkthrough using the Salatin method: woodchips, manured bedding, and food scraps to build soil fertility.
When to Plant Your Garden in Spring (Don't Get It Wrong!)
How to calculate your last frost date, start seeds indoors, choose crops for pre- and post-frost planting, and protect seedlings from cold snaps.
Solo Camping on Frozen Ocean: Ice Fishing for King Crab & Hunting Ptarmigan in Alaska
Six-day arctic survival demonstration: hot tent setup and management in sub-zero conditions, ice fishing technique for crab and shrimp, ptarmigan hunting in snow, cold-weather gear performance and troubleshooting.
Nortent Gamme 4 Hot Tent Two-Day Canoe Tour: Cold Night, Warm Days, Campfire Cooking
Two-day canoe camping trip demonstrating hot-tent setup, fire management, and campfire cooking in spring conditions with hands-on gear evaluation.
Designing & Implementing Permaculture/Regenerative Systems with Takota Coen
Interview on permaculture design principles and implementation strategies for homesteads, covering food production, land harmony, and long-term system planning.
Mastering Meat Preservation: Techniques Unveiled
Five-minute walkthrough of curing, smoking, and dehydrating methods to preserve meat safely for long-term food storage.
Forging a Knife & Survival Camping Alone in the Wilderness
Three-day solo Alaskan wilderness camp building a survival shelter, charcoal kiln, and forged knife from raw materials in sub-zero conditions.
How to Cook Chanterelle Mushrooms
52-second demonstration of identifying, preparing, and cooking wild chanterelle mushrooms foraged from the forest.
How to Mill Your Own Flour to Make Survival Flatbread & Flour Tortillas
Thirteen-minute walkthrough on milling wheat berries into flour at home, with step-by-step recipes for survival flatbread and tortillas using minimal equipment.
Tomboy Crab Apple: Very Sweet, Pink Flesh, Rich Flavor
Two-minute variety showcase of a dessert crab apple cultivar: flavor profile, growing characteristics, and suitability for home cultivation and storage.
Rebuilding Off-Grid Cabin & Digging Well at Alaskan Homestead
41-minute walkthrough of off-grid cabin repair, well-drilling to 93 feet, winterization strategies, and cold-weather problem-solving on a remote Alaska property.
Watch Before Buying a Gravity Water Filter System: How to Find Trustworthy Filters
18-minute guide to evaluating gravity water filters by certification standards (NSF 53, P231), with comparisons across major brands and guidance on contaminant coverage and filter lifespan.
3 Days in Arctic Survival Shelter - Solo Bushcraft Camping & Blacksmithing
Twenty-six minutes building and refining a no-tent winter shelter in sub-zero Alaska, managing fire, drying gear, cooking preserved food, and forging a camp griddle over coals.
Bread for Sandwiches and Wedding Rolls - Quick, Easy, Mostly Whole Wheat Recipe
32-minute walkthrough of a rich, whole-wheat roll recipe suitable for sandwiches and soups, from an off-grid homesteader in Wyoming.
3 Day Rainy Island Adventure: Catch & Cook, Cozy Rain Shelter
39-minute shelter-building and foraging demonstration: kayaking to an island, constructing a rain-proof shelter, and preparing food in wet conditions.
Creating an Herb Wreath for the Kitchen: How to Dry Your Own Herbs & Flowers
37-minute walkthrough on harvesting, drying, and preserving culinary and medicinal herbs and flowers for year-round kitchen use in a mountain homestead setting.
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
Extreme Winter Survival Camping (0F/-18C) — No Tent, No Sleeping Bag
23-minute overnight build of an insulated winter shelter in sub-zero Alaska conditions, demonstrating heat retention principles and fire management for extreme cold survival.
Rebuilding Off-Grid Cabin at Our Abandoned Homestead (Prepping for Alaska's Winter)
38 minutes: winterizing an off-grid Alaska cabin before heavy snow, including insulation, vapor barriers, propane heating, and food foraging (Spruce grouse hunting) under a hard deadline.
Late Summer Garden Tour
Four-minute walk through a Minnesota homestead garden in late August, showing what's growing, harvest timing, and cold-climate vegetable varieties.
Solo Bushcraft Camping and River Travel in Sub-Zero Alaska
Three-day cold-weather solo shelter build, fire management, foraging, and packraft navigation through ice and rapids at freezing temperatures in remote Alaska.
Homemade Tomato Salsa from Augason Farms Tomato Powder
12-minute walkthrough making fresh salsa from dehydrated tomato powder and other shelf-stable pantry staples, with exact measurements and texture tips.
Canned Eggs for Scrambled Eggs: Augason Farms Egg Powder Recipe
Eight-minute walkthrough making scrambled eggs from powdered eggs on a camp stove, with ingredient ratios and taste-test comparison to fresh eggs.
How to Store Water When You Have Limited Storage Options
Nine-minute walkthrough on storing emergency water in small spaces, including container selection, preparation, and filtration options.
Backpacking Stove Recipe: Hash Browns and Ketchup from Dehydrated Ingredients
Step-by-step preparation of hash browns and ketchup using dehydrated potato shreds and tomato powder on a portable camping stove, with single-serving recipes and gear rundown.
6 Days Jungle Survival Camping with No Food - US Marine Corps Jungle Survival School
Hour-long walkthrough of USMC jungle survival training: shelter building, fire starting in wet conditions, water filtration, foraging insects and game, and maintaining morale on minimal calories.
4 Days Hunting Ducks, Geese & Fishing in Nome, Alaska
Four-day hunting and fishing trip in Alaska: waterfowl and upland bird hunting techniques, subsistence salmon netting from the Bering Sea, field processing game, and cold-weather bushcraft.
Water Storage and Filtration for Emergencies
22-minute walkthrough on water storage volume planning and filtration methods for household emergency preparedness.
4 Days in Alaskan Yupik Village: Moose Hunting, Fishing, and Traditional Seal Spearing
43-minute immersion in subsistence hunting and fishing: field dressing a moose, traditional atlatl seal hunting, gill-netting cisco and sheefish, and butchering wild game for food preservation.
Can Food Growing Be Beautiful? Pollinator Garden, Compromising Aesthetics with Production
Ten-minute walkthrough of designing a productive edible landscape that balances food output with pollinator habitat and visual appeal on a homestead.
3 Days Solo Camping, Fishing, Hunting & Foraging Food in Arctic Alaska
25-minute walkthrough of backcountry survival in sub-freezing Alaska: shelter setup, fire, foraged wild berries and fish, navigation by terrain, gear troubleshooting, and food preparation over three days.
Digging a Pond: Permaculture Principle 1 — Observe and Interact
Six-minute walkthrough of site selection and pond excavation on a homestead, applying permaculture observation to build water resilience.
Building Soil to Regenerate an Old Pasture with Hay
Seven-minute walkthrough of a multi-year soil regeneration project: using hay and cover crops to restore degraded pasture for livestock integration and food production.
Homegrown Chicken Feed: Growing, Harvesting and Curing Corn, Sunflower, Garlic and Barley
Seven-minute walkthrough of harvesting and processing flint corn, sunflower, barley, and garlic as homegrown chicken feed on a Canadian homestead.
4 Months at Our Off-Grid Cabin & Homestead in Alaska
Time-lapse of off-grid property repair and maintenance over four months: vehicle fixes, drainage solutions, trail building with excavator, garage weatherproofing, electrical work, and seasonal adaptation in Alaska.
Harvesting Potatoes While They are Still Growing: New Potatoes Picked by Hand From Raised Beds
Seven-minute walkthrough on hand-harvesting new potatoes from raised beds without fully uprooting the plant, allowing continued growth and multiple harvests.
Micro Climate Planters: An Experiment that is Working Out
15-minute walkthrough of a micro climate planter design for extending growing season and maximizing food production in remote/challenging environments.
Mid-July Garden Tour & Tips for Healthy, Productive Plants
25-minute garden walkthrough covering mid-summer plant health, common growing challenges, and techniques for maximizing yields in a remote mountain setting.
Watering With Snow Melt in the Summer - Flood Irrigation for Our Little Orchard
Sixteen-minute walkthrough of using snow melt for summer irrigation in a mountain orchard, including flood-irrigation setup and seasonal water management techniques.
New Chicken Flock 2024: One Month Update
One-month progress report on establishing a backyard chicken flock: what's working, early lessons, and practical steps for someone starting their own food production.
3 Days Camping, Hunting & Fishing on Remote Island in Alaska
Remote-island survival: setting camp, hunting feral rabbits, surf fishing for kelp greenling, and cooking over open fire in sub-arctic conditions.