Articles · Topic
Articles about Food
123 articles across 5 sections
Section
Self-Reliance
Food Preservation Methods Compared
Ten home food preservation methods compared side by side: what each one costs, what it keeps, how long it lasts, and the pH 4.6 question that decides which methods are safe for a given food. Includes why vacuum sealing is not a preservation method.
Starting a Garden
How to start growing food at home. Site selection, soil building, what to plant first, container and raised-bed options, and the realistic first-year expectations.
Managing Your Garden
Beyond planting. Watering, pest management, composting, succession planting, season extension, and the ongoing skills that turn a first garden into a productive one.
Pantry and Storage Cooking
Building a working pantry from shelf-stable staples. What to stock, how much, rotation, FIFO, and cooking real meals from stored food.
Animal Husbandry
A decision framework for keeping animals at household scale. What it actually requires before you buy anything, how to read your property, and how to choose which animal fits your household first.
Aquaponics
Growing fish and vegetables in one closed loop. System types, cycling a tank safely, the food-safety line between fish waste and what you eat, and the tilapia permit question most guides skip.
Backyard Chicken Keeping
Raising backyard chickens for eggs and self-reliance. Flock basics, coop requirements, feeding, winter care, predator protection, Salmonella hygiene, and local regulations.
Backyard Poultry
Chickens, ducks, or quail: comparing space, eggs, noise, and predator-hardiness to help you choose the right backyard poultry for your household.
Beekeeping: Zoning, Registration, and the Sting-Allergy Question Before You Start
What a backyard hive actually asks of a household: the state registration law most beekeepers don't know exists, zoning and neighbor considerations, real cost and time commitment, and the sting-allergy question to settle before bees arrive.
Berry Cultivation
Growing strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries at home. Soil pH by species, cross-pollination, pruning, pest protection, and winter care for a productive berry patch.
Bread Baking
Yeast bread and sourdough at home. Proofing temperatures, building and maintaining a starter, and how to tell harmless hooch from starter mold that needs to be discarded.
Bulk Grain Storage: Rice, Beans, Oats, and Wheat
How to store bulk grains and dry staples for long-term household food security. Container selection, oxygen absorbers, rotation schedules, and cost-per-calorie calculations for the major staples.
Butter and Yogurt Making
Turning milk into butter and yogurt at home. Churning technique, culturing temperatures, why pasteurized milk matters, and the garlic-butter botulism risk worth knowing about.
Campfire Cooking
Cooking a real meal over an open fire when the stove isn't an option. Coals versus flame, foil packets and grates, and the wildfire-prevention rule that governs every campfire.
Cast-Net Fishing
Getting started with cast-net fishing: net anatomy, throwing technique, and why cast net rules are the most legally variable of any fishing method on this site, from unrestricted to banned depending on the state.
Cheesemaking
Turning milk into cheese at home. Why pasteurized milk is the default, what the 60-day raw-milk aging rule actually guarantees, and the Listeria risk that shows up even when the milk was safe.
Clamming
Getting started with clamming: tools, technique, and the two kinds of harvest closures, paralytic shellfish poisoning and bacterial contamination, that make checking before every single dig non-negotiable.
Composting: Turning Kitchen and Yard Waste Into Soil
How composting actually works, the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio that determines success or a stinking pile, hot versus cold methods, and the four fixes for every common composting problem.
Container Gardening: Growing Food Without a Yard
Growing real food in pots on a patio, balcony, or doorstep. Container size by crop, soil mix, watering and feeding schedules, and the mistakes that stall a container garden before it starts.
Crabbing
Getting started with crabbing: traps, trotlines, and dip nets, the escape-ring and egg-bearing-female rules that protect the fishery, and the two real safety concerns: keeping crabs alive until cooked, and Vibrio wound infection from claws and warm seawater.
Dairy-Animal Husbandry: The Daily Commitment of Milking a Cow or Goat
Milking a goat or a family cow means twice a day, every day, with no exceptions. Cow versus goat by space and output, the breeding cycle that keeps milk flowing, and the raw-milk safety picture, honestly framed.
Duck Keeping
Raising backyard ducks for eggs. Breed selection, housing, water needs, feeding, predator protection, and Salmonella hygiene for a small duck flock.
Dutch Oven Cooking
Cooking in a camp Dutch oven over charcoal: choosing a 12- or 14-inch oven and the tools to go with it, lighting coals in a chimney starter, Lodge coal counts and placement for baking, safe internal temperatures, seasoning and care, and the CPSC outdoor-only rule for charcoal.
Fermentation: Sauerkraut, Kimchi, and Lacto-Fermented Vegetables
How lacto-fermentation works, the salt ratios that make it safe, troubleshooting common problems, and your first ferment from scratch. No special equipment required.
Fish Cleaning and Filleting
The shared skill after any fishing method: tools, filleting technique, and two real safety points worth knowing, knife handling and the venomous spines some fish carry, plus keeping the catch cold from water to table.
Fishing and Harvesting: Nine Methods Compared
Nine methods for taking food from the water compared side by side, plus the licensing and consumption advisory rules that govern all of them.
Fly Fishing
Getting started with fly fishing: gear, casting basics, and the wading safety a fly angler needs before ever stepping into moving water. A technique, not a water type, with a real drowning risk worth taking seriously.
Food During Disruptions
How to feed your household when supply chains break. The 72-hour grocery timeline, FEMA two-week recommendations, freezer thresholds, food safety during outages, and the case for building both storage and production.
Food Safety
Food handling safety, power outage food decisions, cooking without electricity, and outdoor cooking safety. Grounded in USDA FSIS guidance.
Freeze-Drying
How home freeze-drying works, what it does and does not do for food safety, which foods freeze-dry well, and how to store the results so they actually last.
Freshwater Fishing
Getting started with freshwater fishing: gear, reading the water, bait and lures, and the bait-bucket rule that protects every lake and river you fish. The most accessible way to add real food from nearby water.
Fruit Trees: Selecting, Planting, and Establishing a Home Orchard
How to choose fruit tree varieties for your climate, plant and establish young trees, manage the first three years, and integrate fruit production with preservation. Realistic timelines and regional guidance.
Goat Keeping
Dairy goats for a small property. Space, feed, browsing behavior, milk safety, parasite management, and what kidding season actually asks of a household.
Greenhouse Gardening: Extending the Growing Season
What a greenhouse actually buys a household: season extension, not year-round free food. Structure types, temperature and ventilation management, heating options, and the carbon monoxide risk worth knowing.
Herb Gardening
Growing culinary herbs at home. Choosing annuals versus perennials, soil and sun requirements, harvesting for continuous growth, and which common herbs are unsafe around pets.
Heritage Recipes
What your grandmother made, verified against what we now know. A collection of vintage family and community recipes, and the food-safety line every one of them needs checked against before it goes in a jar.
How to Dehydrate Food at Home: Temperatures, Times, and Safe Storage
How to dehydrate fruit, vegetables, herbs, fruit leather, and jerky at home: drying temperatures and times, pretreatments and blanching, doneness tests, conditioning, storage times, and the USDA rule for meat. Sourced to NCHFP and USDA.
Hydroponics
Growing vegetables in nutrient solution instead of soil. System types, mixing and testing the solution, and the corrosive chemicals in every pH kit that deserve more respect than the bottle suggests.
Ice Fishing
Getting started with ice fishing: gear, ice thickness guidelines, self-rescue if you fall through, and the carbon monoxide risk inside a heated ice shanty. Seasonal freshwater fishing with real risks worth knowing before you step onto the ice.
Livestock for Small Properties
Raising goats, sheep, rabbits, and bees on small acreage. Space requirements, feed costs, realistic output, zoning, and common myths about small-scale livestock.
Maple Sugaring
Tapping maple trees and boiling sap into syrup. Tree selection and timing, the two real hazards, superheated syrup burns and lead from old equipment, and how to finish and store a safe batch.
Milling Grain
Turning stored whole grain into fresh flour at home. Mill types, why fresh flour goes stale faster than store-bought, and how much to mill at a time.
Mushroom Cultivation
Growing gourmet mushrooms at home. Species selection, substrate and sterile technique, indoor kits versus outdoor logs, and why cultivated mushrooms stay separate from wild foraging.
Open-Hearth Cooking
Cooking a full meal in a working fireplace, the way households did before stoves existed. Cranes, trivets, and reflector ovens, and the chimney safety rules that make it possible to do indoors.
Outdoor Grilling
Charcoal and gas grilling done safely. The carbon monoxide and propane hazards that cause real injuries every year, and the cross-contamination habit that undoes a perfectly cooked meal.
Pasta Making
Fresh egg pasta and dried semolina pasta from scratch. The raw egg and raw flour risk in every batch of dough, and the drying window that keeps homemade noodles safe to store.
Pickling
How vinegar pickling actually works, the acidity rule that keeps it safe, fresh-pack versus refrigerator pickles, and where pickling fits alongside the site's other preservation methods.
Quail Raising
Raising backyard quail for eggs in minimal space. Coturnix quail basics, caging, feeding, predator protection, and Salmonella hygiene for a small covey.
Raising Pigs: Feeder Pigs, Fencing, and the Zoning Question Most Guides Skip
A finite six-month cycle, not an ongoing chore: buying a feeder pig, containment that actually holds, the zoning restriction that catches more households than any other animal in this cluster, and the pork cooking temperature that matters.
Raising Rabbits
Meat rabbits for a small property. Housing, breeding, feed cost, handling safely, and what it actually takes to raise a backyard rabbitry.
Root Cellar Basics: Cold Storage Without a Traditional Cellar
What root cellaring actually means for a modern home. Temperature and humidity requirements by crop, practical setups in a basement corner or garage, and which vegetables store well without refrigeration.
Saltwater Fishing
Getting started with saltwater fishing: gear, circle hook rules, federal versus state waters, barotrauma and deep-water release, and the ciguatera risk in certain reef fish that every saltwater angler should know.
Sausage Making
Fresh sausage as the practical starting point, why grinding changes the food-safety picture, and where cooked-smoked and dry sausage add real risk that fresh sausage doesn't carry.
Seasonal Garden Prep: The Annual Cycle That Keeps a Garden Productive
Spring startup, summer maintenance, fall cleanup, and winter planning. The annual rhythm that keeps a garden productive year after year, with frost-date timing and extension-verified tasks for each season.
Sheep Keeping: Fencing, Grazing, and Parasite Management for a Small Flock
Fiber and meat from a small flock. Fencing that actually holds, rotational grazing, and the internal parasite management that determines whether a flock thrives or fails.
Smoking and Curing Meat
What actually preserves smoked and cured meat, why curing salt matters more than smoke, the danger-zone rule that governs every method here, and where jerky, hot smoking, and cold smoking each fit.
Solar Cooking
Cooking with a box, panel, or parabolic solar cooker. What each type can actually reach in temperature, and why a thermometer matters more here than in almost any other kitchen tool.
Sourdough Baking
Building and maintaining a sourdough starter, and baking real bread from it. Flour, water, and patience: no commercial yeast, no packet, just wild fermentation done with a little technique.
Sprouting Grains and Seeds
Why FDA lists raw sprouts among the riskiest foods a household can make, what actually causes it, and the seed treatment and rinsing discipline that makes home sprouting worth doing carefully.
Surf Fishing
Getting started with surf fishing: gear, casting technique, the stingray shuffle, and the rip current safety every beach angler needs, especially near the jetties and piers that hold fish.
Traditional Baking
Biscuits, pie crust, quick breads, and cakes without a starter or a store trip. Baking powder versus baking soda, cold-fat pastry technique, pantry substitutions, and high-altitude adjustments.
Vacuum Sealing
What vacuum sealing actually preserves, and the one claim about it that is dangerously wrong. Safe uses for dry goods, fridge, and freezer, and why a sealed bag is not a substitute for canning.
Vinegar and Kombucha
Making vinegar and brewing kombucha at home. What each fermentation actually does, the pH and mold checks that keep both safe, and why homemade vinegar never belongs in a canning recipe.
Wood-Stove Cooking
Cooking on a wood stove's flat top or in its firebox. The clearance, chimney, and carbon monoxide rules that govern the appliance itself, and the cast-iron cookware that actually suits the heat.
Worm Farming: Vermicomposting at Home
Composting kitchen scraps indoors with red wiggler worms. Bin setup, the one species that actually works, what to feed them, what kills them, and the odorless system apartment gardeners swear by.
Feeding the Household When Money Is Short
The grocery budget is gone or nearly gone. Here is how to keep the household fed this week: stretch what you have, find food assistance, apply for SNAP, and build a meal plan that works on a bare-bones budget.
Food Independence at Home: Growing, Preserving & Storing
A directory to New World Survival's food section: eight clusters covering growing, raising, foraging, fishing, cooking, preservation, and traditional food crafts, organized by the Preservation Hierarchy from fresh to bulk storage.
Is Your Biomass Worth It: Measuring What a Property Produces
The three feedstock streams a property can carry, measured separately and converted into kilowatt-hours. Sustainable woodlot yield against the household's own heating claim, the EPA screening threshold that rules manure out for most smallholdings, and the stove hours already being burned.
Nutrition for Preparedness, Fitness for Preparedness
Food as fuel, repair, and stability. Everyday eating that supports physical capacity, emergency food planning that maintains it, and reading nutrition labels so your pantry can actually do its job.
Pressure Canning: A Calm, Safety-First Guide
Pressure canning explained without alarm. The botulism science, All American vs. Presto, dial vs. weighted gauges, altitude tables, and USDA-tested recipes.
Seed Saving: Open-Pollinated Basics for a Self-Sufficient Garden
How to save seed from your own garden: which crops are easiest, dry versus wet-seed methods, avoiding cross-pollination, and storage that keeps seed viable for years.
Self-Reliance
Twelve domains of household self-reliance. Water, food, energy, shelter, medical, communications, transportation, tools, skills, fitness, land, and avocations.
Water-Bath Canning for High-Acid Foods
A complete, USDA-approved introduction to water-bath canning. Learn the science, equipment, step-by-step tomato sauce process, and the four mistakes that compromise safety.
Your First Raised Garden Bed
A single-weekend guide to building and planting a 4×8 raised garden bed. Site selection, soil mix ratios, five beginner crops, and honest cost ranges. No experience required.
Section
Preparedness
72-Hour Apartment Kit: Three Days Without the Grid in a Renter's Space
A 72-hour kit built for apartment renters: compact water storage, closet-sized food supply, stairwell 72-hour bag, and everything sized for a space without a garage, basement, or generator option.
Family Storm Kit: Thunderstorms, Tornadoes, and Multi-Day Power Events With Children
A family storm kit for severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and multi-day power outages with children. Helmets, shelter bedding, weather radio, safe lighting, food kids will eat, and activity supplies tha
Food Storage for Dietary Needs
Emergency food planning for older adults with dietary restrictions. Diabetic-friendly shelf-stable foods, low-sodium options, soft foods for denture wearers, easy-open packaging, and realistic calorie planning when the power is out.
Foodborne Illness Preparedness: Outbreaks, Recalls & Power Outage Food Safety
Foodborne illness sickens 48 million Americans per year. Learn how to track recalls, handle food safely during power outages, and protect your household from contamination events.
The 21 Top Food Readiness Items
The working pantry ranked: twenty-one food readiness items built on rotation and eat-what-you-store, with infant and pet supplies placed where they belong.
Trusted Food Resources
Fourteen outside food sources we have read and would send you to: USDA, FDA, and CDC food safety, the National Center for Home Food Preservation, state extension preservation and storage programs with staffed hotlines, Ask Extension, and ATTRA for small livestock, each with why it earned the spot.
Winter Power Outage Kit: Stay Warm, Safe, and Fed When the Heat Goes Off
A winter power outage kit built around heating, carbon monoxide safety, pipe protection, lighting, and three days of no-cook food. Real products, honest prices, and every safety rule sourced from CPSC
Section
Gear and Buying Guides
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
The standard reference for home canning, 400 tested recipes for water-bath and pressure canning, pickles, jams, and more. Why we recommend it, what readers say, and how to buy it or borrow it.
Best Canning Jars
Canning jars compared the way extension services judge them: Ball Mason jars as the standard, Kerr as the same glass for often less, which jars to pass over, and why the lids matter more than the glass.
Best Canning Tool Sets
Canning tool sets compared: the Norpro six-piece set (top pick), Ball's own utensil set, and an honest look at which tools you actually need, starting with the jar lifter.
Best Manual Grain Mills
Hand-crank grain mills compared on fineness, effort, build, and warranty: the Country Living Grain Mill (top pick), the GrainMaker No. 99 for the finest hand-milled flour, the WonderJunior Deluxe+ at less than half the price, and the cheap mills that only crack grain.
Best Pressure Canner (2026): All American vs. Presto
The two pressure canners that earn a place in a long-term food preservation setup. What makes them different, which one fits your kitchen, and the USDA safety rules that apply to both.
Best Water Bath Canners
Water bath canners compared on material, cooktop fit, and rack quality: the Roots & Branches stainless multi-use canner (top pick), the Granite Ware enamel classic on a budget, and the stockpot you may already own.
Cast Iron Cookware: The Definitive Buyer's Handbook
A sourced buyer's handbook for cast iron cookware: bare versus enameled iron, real sizes and listed weights, what the labels mean, honest price tiers, and how to cook with cast iron safely during a power outage.
Classic Self-Reliance Library
The foundational texts of self-reliance, books that have been earning their shelf space for decades. Carla Emery, John Seymour, Hertzberg and Greene. Buy a copy, or find it at your local library.
Food Books
The best books for growing, cooking, and preserving food, canning, gardening, and self-reliant kitchens. Buy a copy, or find it at your local library.
Food Dehydrators: The Definitive Buyer's Handbook
A sourced buyer's handbook for food dehydrators: stackable versus box airflow, temperature, wattage, and drying area decoded, the USDA jerky rule, sun drying limits, storage times, and honest price tiers.
Land & Homesteading Books
The best books for land-based self-reliance, from the suburban quarter-acre to the rural homestead. Buy a copy, or find it at your local library.
Putting Food By
In print since 1973, Putting Food By covers every preservation method, canning, freezing, drying, smoking, pickling, root cellaring. Why we recommend it, what readers say, and how to buy or borrow it
SAS Survival Handbook
The thorough skills reference for when normal infrastructure fails, shelter, fire, water, food, navigation, first aid, and disaster response. 4.25 across 5,500+ ratings. Why we recommend it and
Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens
Gail Damerow
The Backyard Homestead
How much food you can grow on a quarter-acre lot, and how to preserve everything you harvest. New York Times Book Review. Why we recommend it, what to verify for food safety, and how to buy or borrow
The Encyclopedia of Country Living
Carla Emery
The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It
John Seymour
Section
Courses
Building a Balanced Meal
Module 3 of 7 in Nutrition & Meal Planning. Capable tier.
Bulk Storage and Preservation
Module 6 of 7 in Food Buying, Storage & Pantry Management. Resilient tier.
Cold Storage and Shelf Storage
Module 3 of 7 in Food Buying, Storage & Pantry Management. Capable tier.
Cooking from Scratch
Module 4 of 7 in Cooking Fundamentals. Capable tier.
Cooking from the Pantry
Module 5 of 7 in Cooking Fundamentals. Capable tier.
Cooking Fundamentals
Guided course for Unit 2: Cooking Fundamentals. 7 modules across three tiers.
Cooking Without the Grid
Module 6 of 7 in Cooking Fundamentals. Resilient tier.
Eating Around Constraints
Module 5 of 7 in Nutrition & Meal Planning. Capable tier.
Food Buying, Storage & Pantry Management
Guided course for Unit 4: Food Buying, Storage & Pantry Management. 7 modules across three tiers.
Heat and Equipment
Module 2 of 7 in Cooking Fundamentals. Foundation tier.
Leftovers and Ingredient Reuse
Module 6 of 7 in Nutrition & Meal Planning. Resilient tier.
Nutrition & Meal Planning
Guided course for Unit 3: Nutrition & Meal Planning. 7 modules across three tiers.
Planning the Week
Module 4 of 7 in Nutrition & Meal Planning. Capable tier.
Reading a Recipe
Module 3 of 7 in Cooking Fundamentals. Capable tier.
Reading the Label
Module 2 of 7 in Nutrition & Meal Planning. Foundation tier.
Rotation and Tracking
Module 4 of 7 in Food Buying, Storage & Pantry Management. Capable tier.
Shop From What You Have
Module 1 of 7 in Food Buying, Storage & Pantry Management. Foundation tier.
The Food Supply Audit
Module 7 of 7 in Food Buying, Storage & Pantry Management. Resilient tier.
The Proving Meal
Module 7 of 7 in Cooking Fundamentals. Resilient tier.
The Seven-Day Plan
Module 7 of 7 in Nutrition & Meal Planning. Resilient tier.
The Working Pantry
Module 5 of 7 in Food Buying, Storage & Pantry Management. Capable tier.
What Food Does
Module 1 of 7 in Nutrition & Meal Planning. Foundation tier.
What the Date Means
Module 2 of 7 in Food Buying, Storage & Pantry Management. Foundation tier.
Your Kitchen and Your Knife
Module 1 of 7 in Cooking Fundamentals. Foundation tier.