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
We're Rethinking How We Homestead (Again!)
Seasonal adjustments to livestock, food preservation, and self-sufficiency practices for winter homesteading in North Idaho.
Survival in forest: Duck curry with wild mushroom for jungle food
67-minute walkthrough of preparing duck curry and foraged mushrooms in a wilderness survival setting.
Two Weeks Stranded Off-Grid: Water Logistics and Homestead Management
Seven-minute reflection on managing an off-grid Arizona homestead during supply delays, including water-hauling systems, animal care during limited mobility, and when to outsource vs. DIY.
Planting Fall Garlic
Garlic planting guide for Zone 2B/3A northern Alberta gardens: timing, variety selection, and technique for cold-climate growers.
Know Your Local Farmers Before the Shelves Go Empty
Why building relationships with local food producers and small businesses matters for household resilience when supply chains break down.
Growing All Our Own Food: Garden Foundation Systems
26-minute walkthrough of permaculture-on-contour, compost rebuilds, biochar production, orchard guilds, and hugelkultur variants for maximizing food production in dry climates.
Oats for Long-Term Food Storage: The Overlooked Survival Food That Lasts 30 Years
Learn why oats are a cornerstone survival staple, which varieties to store, proper quantities, and how to package them for 25–30 year shelf life.
Off Grid Life: A Day in the Forest | Duck Hunting with my Dog
Harvest wild waterfowl for food and observe seasonal changes while maintaining an off-grid homestead in autumn.
Deer Catch, Clean, and Cook Start-to-Finish
Twenty-two minute walkthrough of harvesting, field-dressing, butchering, and cooking a whole deer, emphasizing respect for the animal and zero-waste processing.
Life in the Jungle: Duck Egg and Bamboo Shoot Cooking, Catch and Cook Crabs
Sixty-seven-minute walkthrough of foraging bamboo shoots, cooking duck eggs, and catching and preparing crabs in a jungle survival setting.
This is a Game Changer
Review of a new food preservation technology that the creator believes significantly advances home food storage capabilities.
Hackers Took Down 700 Supermarkets. Are You Ready?
How infrastructure interdependencies create supply disruptions, and why shelf-stable food stocks buffer against sudden store closures.
Food Label Scams: How Ingredient Splitting Hides Sugar and Other Ingredients
Eight-minute breakdown of ingredient splitting — how food companies list multiple forms of sugar and other ingredients separately to obscure actual content — with practical tips for reading labels and spotting misleading marketing.
They Say 72 Hours. I Say 36 Days.
Why 3-day emergency kits fall short: planning supply reserves for 30+ days of self-sufficiency when roads stay closed and deliveries don't restart.
Baby Nigerian Dwarf Goat Kids Born on Our Homestead
Two Nigerian dwarf goats give birth to twin kids each with no complications—documenting livestock breeding and neonatal care on an off-grid Tasmanian homestead.
5 Gallon Bucket Survival Trap
Quick demonstration of a simple trap for small game using a five-gallon bucket and basic materials.
Versaflow Filter: Connect, Operate & Enhance
56-second walkthrough on connecting and operating a Versaflow water filter, including charcoal enhancement, lifespan, and freezing precautions.
5 Ways to Preserve Apples
Five methods for preserving apples year-round: dehydrating, canning applesauce, freeze-drying, fermenting into vinegar, and cold storage.
Sealing a Desert Pond Without Spending Money
How to seal a pond using the gleying method — a no-cost technique for creating water retention in arid climates on an off-grid property.
Harvest Right Countertop 360 Freeze Dryer: First Look and Testing
Twenty-three minutes testing Harvest Right's new compact freeze dryer: capacity, operation, performance, and whether the lower cost and smaller footprint make home freeze drying practical for average kitchens.
Is the Countertop 360 the Best Value Harvest Right Has Ever Made?
Twenty-minute walkthrough of Harvest Right's new countertop freeze dryer: specs that matter, comparison to the Small model, and total cost of ownership for home food preservation.
Survival in the Rainforest: Fish Curry, Snails, and Frog Preparation
Seventy minutes of rainforest protein preparation: cooking freshly caught fish, snails, and frogs into edible meals using survival methods.
The Zombie Apocalypse of Pests: Tuta Absoluta and Garden Pest Management
Two-minute guide to identifying and managing Tuta absoluta (tomato leafminer), a destructive garden pest threatening household food production.
Cyber Attacks on the Food Supply: Why Food Preservation Skills Matter
Nine-minute exploration of cyber-attack risks to food systems and why home food preservation is a foundational preparedness skill.
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
Making Yogurt with Yogurt
Three-minute walkthrough of yogurt fermentation using existing yogurt as a starter culture for continuous home production.
Why You're Running Out of Food Faster Than You Think
Learn to calculate real calorie needs for your pantry using a simple formula; test three pantry scenarios and identify common storage gaps.
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.
How We Store Our Long-Term Food
Eleven-minute walkthrough of the food-storage methods and systems used on an off-grid homestead.
Stainless Camp Cookware Prototypes | Spaghetti & Garlic Toast Field Test
David Canterbury tests new stainless steel camp cookware prototypes by cooking a full meal outdoors, evaluating design and practicality for backcountry kitchen use.
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.
The Future Isn't Gone. It's Just Going to Look Different
Five-minute reflection on adapting to shifts in food, education, and healthcare through homesteading and intentional self-sufficiency practices.
DIY Gravity System: Simple & Versatile Setup
Forty-second walkthrough of a DIY gravity water filtration system using Versaflo bags, showing setup and adaptation options.
I Stopped Chasing the American Dream and Built My Own
Fourteen-minute walkthrough of one homesteader's transition to off-grid self-reliance: shelter, water, food, power, and income systems built for simplicity and control.
Oil Tankers Hit, Russia Ceasefire Claims, Cyberattack on Food Supply
Analysis of reported tanker strikes, geopolitical developments, and potential cyber threats to food infrastructure.
The First 9 Things to Disappear in a Disaster
Identifies nine essential items that vanish from store shelves first during emergencies and explains supply-chain priorities for household stockpiling.
How to Store Eggs Up to 2 Years with No Fancy Equipment
Five-minute demonstration of the water glass (pickling lime) method for preserving fresh eggs without refrigeration for up to two years.
Five Foods to Watch During El Niño: Storage and Supply Risk
Analysis of how a predicted strong El Niño could affect five pantry staples (rice, coffee, flour, sugar, chocolate): what experts say, storage best practices, and the creator's own pantry strategy.
How I Store a Year's Worth of Food in a 960 sq ft Cabin
Forty-minute walkthrough of food storage systems in limited space: pantry organization, freezing, root cellar management, and preservation techniques like canning and freeze-drying.
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.
Cheap Greenhouse Pond: One-Year Update
Follow-up on a DIY greenhouse using a pond for thermal mass and passive solar heating to extend the growing season.
Hurricane Survival: Powering Your Home with EG4 6000XP
48-second walkthrough: wiring an EG4 6000XP battery system to run a well pump during extended grid outage, with real hurricane-outage performance data.
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.
My Vegetable Garden is Done for the Season | First Hunt with my Homemade Longbow
Seasonal garden closedown, foraging wild berries, and testing a homemade longbow in autumn wilderness conditions.
Catching and Cooking Catfish with Wild Bamboo Shoots
Hour-long walkthrough of fishing for catfish, field butchering, cooking over an open fire, and identifying wild edible plants.