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
My Food Forest Has a Four-Legged Cleanup Crew
Eight minutes on integrating livestock into a food forest ecosystem to manage pests, soil fertility, and waste.
Harvesting Over 10,000 Gallons From One Rainstorm
Eight-minute walkthrough of a working rainwater collection and storage system that captured 10,000+ gallons during a monsoon, with lessons on pond, cistern, and overflow management.
Getting More Food Than Your Garden Can Provide: Harvesting Wild Blueberries
Four-minute walkthrough on foraging wild blueberries to supplement garden production, with tips on finding patches and harvesting.
The Most Corn We've Ever Grown: Harvesting 600 Ears and Building a Seed Landrace
Eleven-minute walkthrough of harvesting storm-damaged corn, evaluating four dent varieties for chicken feed, saving seed to breed a homegrown sweet corn variety, and building an 8-foot perimeter fence to protect crops from deer and rabbits.
Why Your Chickens Need a Midday Siesta (And How to Time It)
How to synchronize chicken coop access with seasonal sunlight and heat patterns to improve foraging, reduce labor, and adapt your system to changing conditions.
Survival Trap Demonstration
Under-one-minute trap-building walkthrough for wilderness survival and food procurement.
Can You Bake Without Electricity? Testing the Ember Oven
Thirteen-minute real-world test of the Ember Oven, evaluating whether this portable wood-fired solution works for off-grid baking and food preparation.
Deep vs Shallow Well Pumps: Which Do You Need?
How to select the right hand pump for your well based on static water level, covering the 25-foot suction limit and mechanical differences.
Gas Tax Relief Scam as Airlines Cut Flights
Analysis of diesel and jet fuel price spikes, their impact on agricultural harvesting costs and food supply chains, and airline capacity cuts in response to rising energy costs.
Outdoor Canning Kitchen Setup: Six Weeks of Lessons Learned
Walkthrough of a backyard canning station using a propane camp stove and work table, with practical takeaways on comfort, efficiency, and keeping heat out of the home.
When Everything Goes as Planned Living Off Grid
Homestead maintenance walkthrough: trailer axle repair, water tank relocation, and washing machine troubleshooting on a working off-grid property.
Bull and Sheep Herd Performance After Thatch Field Burn
Greg Judy walks through how his cattle and sheep herd responds to grazing a recently burned pasture, observing weed control and forage quality outcomes.
Is This the Emergency Water Filter You'd Trust? ITEHIL E01 Mini Tested
Seven-minute hands-on test of the ITEHIL E01 Mini electric water filter: setup, purification capability (removes 99.9999% bacteria and viruses), and off-grid solar-powered operation for emergency water access.
DIY Lunch Meat
How to make homemade lunch meat with clean ingredients, lower cost, and meal-prep convenience without commercial preservatives.
Building a Chicken Aviary
Nine-minute walkthrough building a 2,400-square-foot chicken aviary with natural enrichment, breeding control, and predator protection at lower cost than a traditional coop.
This Wild Bird is Better Than Chicken
Catch-and-cook demonstration featuring wild bird preparation and cooking in a bushcraft setting.
Diesel Prices and Grocery Inflation: How to Stock Your Pantry Before Winter
Analysis of diesel's impact on food costs, historical price-spike patterns, and three real-world pantry stock-up plans at different budget levels.
Best Kept Secret in Military Surplus? 1945 AGM Two-Burner Stove
Twenty-one minutes evaluating a vintage military two-burner stove: layout, portability, field cooking applications, and why surplus gear still works for base camps and outdoor cooking today.
Homemade Butter: 10 Minutes with Common Kitchen Tools
How to make fresh butter from cream using a stand mixer, hand mixer, blender, or food processor; covers flavor, saltiness, baking considerations, and cost comparison to store-bought.
Kitchen Recalls: Meat, Frozen Fruit, Cinnamon, and Household Products
Breakdown of recent food and household product recalls—what triggered them, where they were distributed, and how to check your pantry and home for affected items.
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.
We Made Sauerkraut: Classic and Cool New Recipe
Thirteen-minute walkthrough of fermenting sauerkraut using a harvest salvage, including a fennel-sauerkraut variation.
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
Canning Pork Shoulder for Shelf Stable Meals
Pressure canning technique for preserving pork shoulder into shelf-stable, ready-to-eat meals without refrigeration.
4 Day Squirrel Camp 2026 | Complete Camp Setup & Gear Review
41-minute walkthrough of a complete four-day hunting camp: shelter, layout, cooking setup, gear choices, and lessons learned from the field.
He Survived 78 Days in the Wilderness, This is His Warning to the World
Learn survival priorities and practical techniques from an extended wilderness survival experience and expert analysis.
Early September Zone 2B/3A Harvest
Walkthrough of early-season garden harvesting in Northern Alberta's short growing season, documenting what grows and yields in zone 2B/3A.
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.
Rye Bread: Milling and Baking
Eight-minute walkthrough: mill rye flour from grain, mix and shape a rye-bread loaf, bake in a Dutch oven. Recipe and technique for making bread from scratch-ground flour.
Making Doors for my Maple Syrup Shack | Old-Fashioned Apple Pie in an Off-Grid Kitchen
Build functional shelter doors and prepare traditional meals using off-grid techniques and open-fire cooking.
Stone House Renovation & Autumn Garden Reset
30 minutes of dry stone wall rebuilding, window installation, autumn harvest, and polytunnel food production on a century-old off-grid homestead renovation.
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.
Apple Trees Instead of a Fence: Growing Food in Small Spaces
Walkthrough of planting columnar fruit trees as a dual-purpose privacy screen and food source, plus fitting 14 crop rows into a 20×50-foot garden strip for tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and staple preservation crops.
I Tried To Tell You! There's No Food Left
Assessment of food supply concerns and what individuals can do to prepare for potential scarcity.
What I'm Buying Right Now as Prices, Shortages & Tensions Rise | Prepper Pantry Haul
56-minute walkthrough of specific shelf-stable foods, freeze-dried goods, canned items, and storage supplies being added to emergency pantry, with rationale for each choice.
Interview: Josh and Jesse of Dirty Dog Farm on Regenerative Meat Production
Greg interviews two regenerative farmers about building a profitable pasture-based meat operation, from early struggles to current success.
Fire Pit and Butane Stove Breakfast: Off-Grid Cooking on the Homestead
Five-minute silent demonstration of cooking without grid power: coffee and eggs prepared on a portable butane stove and fire pit during a quiet homestead morning.
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.
The Secret to Healthier Soil? | Soil Health Part 3
Build soil organic matter through compost, mulch, cover crops, and reduced tillage to improve water retention and soil structure.
What Size Oxygen Absorber Do You Really Need?
Eight-minute walkthrough on choosing the right oxygen-absorber capacity for different food types and container sizes, with practical sizing recommendations for jars through 5-gallon buckets.
Eating Beaver Tail
Thirty-one-second demonstration of field-dressing and cooking beaver tail as a wild-food source.
7 Steps for Fall Garden Cleanup Before Winter
Seven practical steps to prepare your garden for winter and position it for spring productivity, covering what to remove, what to leave, and seasonal maintenance.
Scavenging After SHTF: 60 Days After Collapse
23-minute walkthrough of scavenging strategy when supplies run low post-collapse: critical items to prioritize, safety protocols, and decision frameworks for leaving your base.
When Nothing Goes as Planned Living Off Grid
A day on an Arizona off-grid homestead: troubleshooting horse trailer axles, washing machine repairs, and managing setbacks in self-sufficient living.
Bird Flu vs. Thanksgiving: The Reality Check You Need Right Now
H5N1 advance into turkey operations ahead of Thanksgiving: what the data shows, Thanksgiving sourcing options, and what to watch as fall migration continues.
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.