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.
Showing 539 videos · runtime Under 5 min
Top picks in Food & Water
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The Piece of Paper You Need Before Getting a Hand Pump
Why you need your well log before buying a hand pump: how to verify well depth and static water level for off-grid water systems.
What Problems Have You Had When Canning – No. 1468
Live panel discussion on common canning challenges and troubleshooting, hosted by Gil with Tammy McNeill and Mark of ChefTech. Viewer questions encouraged.
What I Wish I Knew Before I Got Chickens
Fifty-one seconds on common beginner chicken-raising mistakes—coop design, fencing, and systems setup—from someone who learned them the hard way.
Canning Pork Shoulder for Shelf Stable Meals
Pressure canning technique for preserving pork shoulder into shelf-stable, ready-to-eat meals without refrigeration.
Water Outage: First 24 Hours Survival Guide
Immediate steps to take when tap water stops flowing—how to locate safe water, ration what you have, and handle the first day without municipal supply.
Must Know Technique: Keeping Wild Meat
Short walkthrough on preserving wild game meat in the field and at camp—a foundational skill for hunters and subsistence food preparedness.
Armadillo: Taste, Preparation, and Subsistence Hunting
Twenty-two seconds on harvesting and tasting wild armadillo as a subsistence food source in bushcraft and survival contexts.
BB Gun Management: Keep Sheep In Line
39-second demonstration of using a BB gun's sound to herd escaped sheep back into their pen—an unconventional but effective farm management technique.
Eating Beaver Tail
Thirty-one-second demonstration of field-dressing and cooking beaver tail as a wild-food source.
The One Thing You Need When the Grid Fails
Why hand pumps provide essential mechanical backup for well water when solar and grid power fail.
Fruit Tree Planting Timing: Optimal Seasonal Windows for Your Region
How to time fruit-tree planting for your climate zone to avoid root stress and establish a productive food forest without wasting saplings.
Maple Bacon & Trout
31-second catch-and-cook demonstration: trout preparation with maple and bacon in a wilderness setting.
Measuring your well level without expensive tools
How to measure static water depth in your well using a simple string and weight, to verify your off-grid water source before grid failure.
Would You Know If Your Tap Water Was Unsafe?
Learn to recognize water emergencies, test water quality yourself, and plan household water storage before a boil-water advisory hits your area.
100% Whole Wheat: Hydration Needs for Freshly Milled Flour
Quick tip on adjusting hydration ratios when baking with freshly milled whole wheat flour versus store-bought.
Making 100% Whole Wheat Bread: Step 1
First installment in a whole wheat bread baking series, covering foundational techniques for home bread production from scratch.
Harvest + No Diesel = Food Prices Explode
How diesel fuel shortages in harvest season cascade through agricultural transport and drive food prices higher.
Why Your Stationary Chicken Coop Is a Huge Mistake
Mobile chicken coop systems that reduce labor, improve land health through natural tilling, and cut costs compared to stationary setups.
Why Static Water Level Is the Well Number That Matters
52-second breakdown of why static water level, not total well depth, determines which hand pump will work for your off-grid water system.
Singeing a Beast for Eating
One-minute demonstration of field dressing and singeing wild game over open flame — a traditional subsistence cooking technique.
The Secret To A Huge Garlic Harvest
Step-by-step garlic growing: soil preparation, bulb breaking, planting depth, and root development for a successful harvest.
Why It's Worth Developing a Spring
How to locate and tap a natural spring on your property, and size water storage to make a small flow sustain homestead needs year-round.
Food Preservation Time Savers
Five practical food-preservation methods for busy households: unblanched freezing, tomato freezing, cold storage, freeze-drying, and batched canning to fit tight timelines.
Irrigation Ditch Digging
Three-minute walkthrough of digging and testing an irrigation ditch to water a field using a tractor, demonstrating water-management infrastructure for food production.
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
Turn Kitchen Scraps Into Free Fertilizer
Composting walkthrough: convert kitchen waste into rich soil for food gardens, reducing grocery costs and building homestead fertility.
What We Found in Our Old Spring
Troubleshooting a clogged spring water line: how to identify root intrusion and restore flow in a gravity-fed water system.
Livestock Guardian Dog Puppies: Breeding, Training, and Predator Protection
Two-minute walkthrough of guardian dog puppy selection, hot-wire training, and integration with existing dogs to protect livestock flocks from predators.
How to Make Sprouts: Lentils and Mung Beans
Step-by-step walkthrough of sprouting lentils and mung beans at home—a high-yield, space-efficient way to grow fresh nutritious food year-round.
My First Chicken Setup Was a Disaster
Common mistakes when setting up your first chicken coop and flock, with lessons on preparation, fencing, and systems before birds arrive.
Water Storage: Beyond Drinking, Maintenance & Resilience
Walkthrough of water storage systems for household use, covering drinking supply, maintenance protocols, and long-term resilience planning.
Scavenging and Preparing Bones
Short walkthrough on locating and processing scavenged bones as a wilderness food source and subsistence skill.
Grass-Fed vs Grass-Finished
Learn the nutritional and agricultural differences between grass-fed and grass-finished beef and their implications for homestead sourcing.
This Weird Wild Meat — Everyone Loves It (and How to Catch It)
Hands-on demonstration of catching and preparing an unconventional wild protein source using primitive or minimal-gear methods.
Don't Forget Your Pets When You're Prepping
Short walkthrough on including pets in your household emergency preparedness plan, from food storage to evacuation readiness.
Mossy Oak Chef Knife with Cutting Board Review
Forty-seven-second hands-on review of a Mossy Oak chef knife and cutting board for food preparation.
Freezing Tomatoes for Later Canning
How to freeze fresh tomatoes throughout the growing season and process them in batch canning sessions during winter downtime.
Why Your Blueberries Keep Dying (And How to Fix It)
Walkthrough of blueberry cultivation using garden terraces and swale systems to optimize soil moisture and yield on a homestead.
Planting and Harvesting Carrots: Soil Prep, Spacing, and Timing
26-minute guide to growing carrots from seed: soil preparation, planting depth and spacing, soil temperature and moisture, harvesting timing, and thinning techniques for a continuous harvest.
Advanced Water Filtration Products from Membrane Solutions
Tour of emerging water filtration and purification gear shown at the Outdoor Retailer Show, including products under development for emergency preparedness.
Bang Bang Kabobs
Quick outdoor cooking technique for preparing freshly caught fish as kabobs over a campfire.
Accidentally Found a Natural Spring Under My Land
Discovering and developing a natural spring for off-grid water storage: cistern installation, gravity-fed system design, and silt management on a homestead.
$6.23 Diesel: Farmers and Truckers Hit First
How rising diesel costs cascade through harvest, processing, and trucking to reach grocery-store prices — and why farmers and truckers absorb the shock first.
Dandelions Were Food, We Were Taught to Kill Them
Why dandelions—a nutritious wild edible settlers deliberately cultivated—became weeds in modern yards, and how to reclaim them as foraged food.
Porcupine Soup
Forty-eight-second catch-and-cook demonstration: field dressing a porcupine and preparing it as soup, a practical wild-game subsistence skill.
Cost and cuts from a half-share of grass-finished beef
Breaking down the cost, yield, and benefits of buying a half-share of organic, grass-finished beef directly from a local farmer—including nose-to-tail use and tallow rendering.
Can You Eat Green Potatoes? Safety, Storage, and Risk Reduction
Green potatoes contain solanine; learn how to identify risk, safely prepare them if needed, and store potatoes to prevent greening.
First Day of Fall – Are You Canning Yet? Monday Night Fireside Chat
Seasonal canning readiness discussion with Gil Camppatton, Tammy McNeill (Rebel Canners), and Mark (ChefTech) in a live fireside-chat format covering food preservation for fall harvest.
Where Will Your Water Come From When the Grid Goes Down?
Live class on three-tier water security: building a two-week buffer, identifying and treating backup sources, and long-term solutions like hand pumps and rainwater collection.