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 320 videos · runtime 5–15 min
Top picks in Food & Water
Curated by topic, not commissionAll curated· primary topic only
Hummingbirds and Greenhouse
Season-long look at growing vegetables, herbs, and specialty crops in an Arizona greenhouse, plus solar and wind power setup for a 43-acre homestead.
Fishing Knots for Preppers, Bushcraft and Survival
Six-minute walkthrough of essential fishing knots for survival and bushcraft scenarios, demonstrating easy step-by-step techniques.
Atmospheric Water Harvesting: How to Pull Clean Water From Air for $30
How atmospheric water generation works, materials for a DIY $30 device, real-world performance tests, and scalability for off-grid households.
Garden Progress: Seedlings to Success
Twelve minutes on spring seedling propagation and early-season garden setup on a 43-acre Arizona homestead, covering raised beds, transplanting, and crop timing.
How to Store 90 Days of Food in a Small Apartment (Without Looking Like a Hoarder)
Ten-minute walkthrough on building a 90-day food supply for a family of four in a small apartment using calorie math, rotation systems, and hidden storage spots.
The Secret to a Breathtaking Food Garden: 5 Design Tips for Any Budget
Five practical garden design principles—from flowers and water features to hardscaping—for building productive food gardens on any budget.
Storing Apples: Gold Rush Apple Variety and Long-Term Storage Techniques
Five-minute practical guide to selecting and storing the Gold Rush apple variety for long-term household food preservation.
Permaculture forest garden
Building a multi-layer food forest under established apple trees using permaculture and no-dig methods: plant selection, soil building, and wildlife habitat.
How to Get Ready for Fur Trapping the Right Way and Avoid Mistakes
Six-minute walkthrough of fur-trapping fundamentals, common beginner mistakes, and lessons learned from years of hands-on practice.
DIY Bug Spray With American Beauty Berry
Seven-minute walkthrough harvesting American beauty berry and making a homemade mosquito repellent for garden pest control without synthetic chemicals.
How to Make Easy Homemade Almond Milk
Five-minute walkthrough on making almond milk at home using basic kitchen equipment, a practical food-production skill for self-sufficiency.
Final Steps of Building a Florida Food Forest
Step-by-step walkthrough of completing a permaculture food forest in central Florida, including sweet potato planting and subtropical plant selection.
Cats and Chickens
Becky shares hard-won lessons on protecting chicks from cats, managing feral predators, and selecting trainable farm dogs for flock safety.
How Doing LESS Transformed My Food Garden & Saved My Sanity
Twelve-minute walkthrough of five core gardening fundamentals—water, soil, sunlight, timing, pest management—and how simplifying your approach builds sustainable food production.
July Garden Tour | Productive, Efficient No Till Garden
Walkthrough of a no-till organic garden in mid-summer growth, demonstrating layout, soil management, and yield efficiency from a homesteader using this method.
AquaTru Reverse Osmosis Water Filter Review VS Gravity Filters
Side-by-side comparison of reverse osmosis and gravity water filtration systems, with demonstration of setup and use for household water purification.
DIY Hydroponics Fertilizer: Truth About Homemade Nutrients
Six-minute breakdown of DIY hydroponic fertilizer methods: what actually works, common pitfalls, and whether homemade nutrients are worth the effort for food growers.
What Every Gardener Wishes They Knew About Essential Tools
Guide to eight essential, durable gardening tools that handle 95% of tasks without waste or gimmickry—gloves, cutting tools, trowels, shovels, rakes, and watering gear.
Homestead Animals: New Chickens, Baby Bunnies and More
Tour of a working homestead's newest animals—chickens, rabbits, goats, and pigs—with practical context on raising livestock for food and self-sufficiency.
5 Chicken Mistakes Beginners Make (and How to Fix Them) | Backyard Homestead Guide
Five common chicken-keeping errors beginners encounter and practical fixes: straight-run surprises, coop upgrades, predator proofing, and flock integration.
How to Make a Potato Grow Tower
Six-minute walkthrough of building a DIY potato tower from garden scraps—a low-cost, space-efficient growing method adaptable to available materials.
Raising Chicks the Right Way: Moving to Grass, Adding Shelter, and Flock Growth Tips
Eight-minute walkthrough of moving chicks to pasture, building a second coop, expanding the flock, plus updates on sheep, orchard, and berry plantings on a family homestead.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Planting to be self-sufficient
Seven-minute tour of Dry Creek Homestead's current crop plantings and strategy for food self-sufficiency.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
How to Dehydrate Frozen Potatoes for Long Term Food Storage
Eight-minute walkthrough of dehydrating frozen potatoes for long-term storage, with discussion of food storage planning and resources.
Recognizing, Identifying, and Treating Gapeworm in Your Backyard Chicken Flock
Fourteen-minute guide to identifying gapeworm symptoms in chickens, treatment protocols using fenbendazole, and preventive measures like apple cider vinegar and diatomaceous earth.
Food Storage: Storing Sugar for Long Term, Shelf Life, How Much Do You Need?
12-minute walkthrough on storing sugar long-term: shelf-life expectations, quantity planning for one person annually, and best practices using mylar bags for food preservation.
DIY Automatic Chicken Coop Door
Six-minute walkthrough: build a 12V timer-controlled automatic coop door with linear actuator, relay, and power supply, including wiring diagram and parts list.
SHTF Food Storage | 15 Year Old Rice | Fresh Assured Mylar Bags
Father and son taste-test rice stored 15 years in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, demonstrating long-term food storage durability and proper pantry rotation methods.