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
Camping, Fishing & Clamming in a Snow Storm: Coastal Foraging in Alaska
Razor clam and butter clam harvesting during extreme low tide in Alaska, cod and flounder fishing, kelp foraging, and cold-weather camp setup in spring snow.
3 Days Camping, Hunting and Mushing in the Arctic
Fifty miles of dog-sled travel and winter camping above the Arctic Circle at -18°F: fire management, ptarmigan and moose hunting, hot-tent setup, and field cooking in extreme cold.
4 Days in the Arctic: Crabbing, Hunting & Fishing in Alaska
Ice fishing for cod, hunting ptarmigan, and harvesting king crab from beneath the Bearing Sea ice; field preparation and butchering of game birds and shellfish in sub-zero conditions.
I Made Easy Peasant Bread (and it was AMAZING)
Step-by-step peasant bread recipe using basic pantry staples: mixing, rising, shaping, and baking a no-knead loaf in oven-safe bowls.
Saving Garden Seeds—Salad #13 Family
Step-by-step seed saving from salad greens: harvesting, drying, storage, and viability testing for next season's garden.
Planting to be self-sufficient
Seven-minute tour of Dry Creek Homestead's current crop plantings and strategy for food self-sufficiency.
How to Save Garden Seeds #12: Beetberry, Quinoa, and Lettuce
Sixty-minute seed-saving walkthrough covering beetberry, quinoa, and lettuce—techniques for preserving viable seeds from your own garden.
11 Foods to Stockpile That (Almost) Never Expire
Fourteen-minute walkthrough of eleven shelf-stable foods suitable for long-term storage, with practical guidance on selection and storage conditions.
120 Miles by Snowmobile to an Off-Grid Homestead: Hunting, Fishing & Winter Travel
Four-day journey across Alaskan ice trails and to a 1904 off-grid lodge, demonstrating overflow navigation, ptarmigan hunting, ice fishing, snow machine operation in thaw conditions, and homestead logistics in sub-zero wilderness.
Spinach: Saving Your Garden Seeds #11 — Northstar Live! Ep. 235
58-minute walkthrough on harvesting, processing, and storing spinach seeds from your own garden for next season's crop.
Planting English Peas | Dry Creek Homestead
Step-by-step walkthrough of planting sweet peas as part of a homestead food production system.
4 Days Camping in Alaska at -23 Degrees
Solo four-day winter survival in the Alaska bush: hot tent setup on frozen lakes, equipment troubleshooting in extreme cold, hunting and foraging strategy, and practical problem-solving when multiple systems fail simultaneously.
3 Days in Arctic with Bushcraft Hot Tent & No Sleeping Bag
Building a heated shelter from scratch in sub-zero Alaskan conditions, managing fire in wet snow, melting water, and sleeping on animal hides while dealing with equipment failure and frozen gear.
Building a Modern, Comfortable Off-Grid House in Finland - #7 Water
Water system design and installation for an off-grid cabin: sourcing, storage, treatment, and year-round reliability in a cold climate.
22 Miles in a Blizzard Without a Tent – Solo Camping in Survival Shelters
32-minute winter survival expedition across Alaska: building and managing shelters in heavy snow, improvised heating with alcohol fuel, water filtration, managing hypothermia risk, and gear failure troubleshooting under real conditions.
Ranger Bucket Set - Organic Emergency Storable Food Supply (433 Servings)
13-minute walkthrough of a bulk emergency food bucket: contents, servings, shelf life, taste, and practical storage considerations.
Solo Bushcraft Camping in Alaska: Shelter, Hunting Grouse, and Coyotes
Nineteen minutes of shelter-building, fire management in rain and cold, hunting and processing wild game (grouse and rabbits), and handling a coyote pack at night—all on a gear-light bushcraft trip in fall Alaska.
Prepping for Survival: The Lights Are Going Out
13-minute grid-down scenario walkthrough with recommended gear and supplies for energy, water storage, food preservation, and medical readiness.
Top 10 Costco Preps: After 3-Years of INFLATION
A price comparison of emergency supplies at Costco, measuring inflation's impact on preparedness budgets over three years.
4 Days Camping, Hunting & Searching for Plane Crash in Alaska's Rainforest
Cold-weather camping in Alaska: shelter setup, duck hunting and field dressing, water management below freezing, improvised cooking, and navigation in temperate rainforest with a young son.
Bushcraft Shelter Camping Under Northern Lights
Building a no-tent shelter in sub-freezing Alaska conditions, including a heated-sand-trench technique for deep-winter survival without sleeping gear, plus fire-building and cold-weather camp cooking.
Stranded in Alaska's Rainforest - 3 Days Solo Camping
Three days solo in Southeast Alaska's temperate rainforest: shelter selection, fire-building in constant rain and high humidity, water filtering, hunting, and staying warm and fed in sub-optimal conditions.
4 Days Solo Camping on Remote Alaska Island: Hunting, Fishing, and Wilderness Survival
Four-day solo survival in remote Gulf of Alaska: shelter setup in an off-grid cabin, water filtration from rain catch, hunting and fishing for food, navigation through bear country, and fire management in wet conditions.
Caught in an Alaskan Snowstorm: Emergency Shelter and Cold-Weather Survival
Luke gets caught in a surprise September snowstorm at 9.5 miles into a mountain hike, uses a volunteer-maintained survival cabin to recover from hypothermia, and practices layering, fire-building, and decision-making under cold-weather duress.
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
3 Days Camping & Foraging in Arctic: Fishing, Hunting & Edible Plants
Three-day Alaska tundra camp: fly-fishing grayling, ptarmigan hunting, wild edible plant ID (berries, rose hips, Labrador tea), shelter building in cold wet conditions, and backcountry navigation without trail or map.
4 Days Alone in Alaska — Bushcraft Camping & Foraging Food
Solo four-day Alaskan wilderness survival: shelter building, water sourcing with gravity filtration, kayak navigation in glacier-fed tidal rivers, cold-water fishing, and fire-cooked meals in sub-freezing conditions.
Preparing for Grid Down: Raising Chickens 101
Ten-minute walkthrough on selecting breeds, building coops, and feeding techniques to establish backyard chicken production for food independence.
Fueling Change with HomeBiogas: The Off-Grid System Turning Waste Into Sustainable Energy
54-minute interview with HomeBiogas co-founder on converting food scraps and organic waste into renewable energy for off-grid households and homesteads.
Using Amazon Subscribe and Save to Build Your Prepper Stockpile
How to use Amazon's Subscribe & Save service to gradually accumulate food, water, and everyday supplies for disaster preparedness on a budget.
Testing the Alcohol Mini Stove: Different Fuels and Boiling Water
Sixteen-minute walkthrough testing an alcohol camp stove with various fuels, measuring burn temperatures and demonstrating water boiling for emergency cooking.
8 Days Camping & Building a Bushcraft Survival Shelter with My 5-Year-Old Son
Step-by-step construction of an insulated platform shelter in Alaska winter, demonstrating elevated bedding, fire placement, cold-weather layering, and family safety in sub-zero camping.
Dollar Tree Prepper Haul: Budget Items to Start Prepping
Ten-minute walkthrough of inexpensive items from Dollar Tree suitable for building a starter prepper stockpile on a tight budget.
The Aussie Mountain Homestead with a Tiny 100 Day Growing Season | Ep 10
56-minute interview with a homesteader at 1350m elevation managing a 100-day growing season, covering frost-resistant crops, seasonal planning, and strategies to reach 70% food self-sufficiency.
How to Long Term Store Eggs
Sixteen-minute walkthrough on freezing, vacuum-sealing, and testing eggs for long-term storage, plus how to read expiration dates.
3 Days Stranded in Alaska's Bear Country — Camping, Foraging & Clam Digging
Three-day remote Alaska camping with hands-on foraging: identifying razor clams, butter clams, mussels and cockles; timing harvests around 20-30 foot tides; setting up bear fencing; fire management; water sourcing; cold-weather shelter and cooking over open flame.
9 Fatal Transplanting Mistakes to Avoid in Your Garden
A home gardener shares nine transplanting lessons learned over six years, covering potting up, fertilizing starts indoors, hardening off, soil preparation, and planting depth techniques for tomatoes and peppers.
Turn Your Homestead Milk Cow Dream Into a Reality: The Essential Starter Guide
74-minute interview on dairy cow ownership: breed selection, animal care, milk production, calf sharing, fresh milk uses, gear essentials, and troubleshooting for homestead food security.
4-Day Fishing and Hunting in the Arctic: Ice Fishing, Tarmigan, and Field Cooking
Ice fishing for sheefish on the frozen Chukchi Sea, hunting tarmigan in the Arctic tundra, field dressing game, and cooking fresh catch in sub-zero conditions — hands-on food procurement and cold-weather survival skills in the Inuit village of Kotzebue.
Compost Health Check 101: Effective composting as a waste management solution
Interview on composting best practices: diagnosing unhealthy piles, fixing odor and decomposition issues, monitoring temperature and moisture for successful food-waste recycling.
Old Country Gravity Smoker: Relighting Leftover Charcoal Quickly
Technique for rapidly relighting saved charcoal in a gravity smoker using a cordless blower, useful for efficient food smoking in off-grid scenarios.
Winter Survival Camping in Alaska: Building Shelter and Staying Warm Without Tent or Sleeping Bag
23-minute walkthrough of no-tent winter shelter construction in sub-zero Alaska: site selection, snow-block clearing, fire placement for ground thawing, platform building, and sleeping-on-warm-coals technique with wool blankets.
Old Country Smoker Mods
Five-minute walkthrough of three modifications to an Old Country Smoker: smokestack installation for improved draft, drain bucket mod, and Thermoworks temperature control integration.
Old Country Insulated Gravity Fed Smoker Ash Collector Mod
Six-minute walkthrough: adapting a Masterbuilt ash collector into an Old Country smoker for ash management and wood-chunk storage during long burns.
Cambro Meat Resting and Heating Device
DIY insulated meat resting box using military-surplus Cambro carrier and adjustable heating mat; maintains temperature for extended resting post-smoke.
Winter Camping in -22 Degrees: Hot Tent Setup and Cold-Weather Gear
Luke Nichols demonstrates winter camping in extreme Alaska cold using a hot tent, covers gear layering, overnight fire management, water and sanitation logistics in sub-zero conditions.
Winter Camping in a Bushcraft Bunkbed Shelter
Building and winterizing a log shelter in Alaska snow, managing fire and condensation, sleeping-bag selection, and keeping warm in sub-zero conditions—with a young child in tow.
Harvest Right Vacuum Fix
Troubleshooting and repair techniques for common vacuum leaks in Harvest Right freeze dryers, with step-by-step fixes.
Hot Tent Camping in Blizzard: Fire, Water, and Snow Navigation
Setting up and managing a hot tent stove in an Alaska blizzard, with wet-wood fire techniques, snow-to-water melting, and navigating whiteout drifts to escape the mountain.