Food
At the most basic level, food provides us with the energy we need to sustain life, and he that is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
In fact, if you’re not found possessed of it, it might BE your last day.
Food is a less immediate need in most survival situations–most people have the capability to go for 3 weeks (or longer) before dying from starvation.
There are several ways we can prepare ourselves, so that we are sure to have this “currency of life.”
Storage
The most simple and basic way to ensure that you’ll have food when you need it is to store it ahead of time. Food storage doesn’t have to be complicated either. In fact, food storage is one race that is definitely won by a slow and steady tortoise over a speedy and erratic hare.
Production
As a compliment to the food that you purchase, your own food production efforts can and should greatly supplement your food storage. Being able to produce your own food is the backbone of self sufficiency and long term survival. It includes things like gardening, raising livestock, hunting, foraging, snaring and more.
Preservation
Once you are successfully producing at least a portion of your own food, preservation techniques can help you to convert that food into long term storage. Food preservation minimizes waste, and affords you the luxury of being able to enjoy certain foods long after the harvest has passed.
Check out the following prepisodes for topics related to food storage, production and preservation:
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Daily Prep Episode 309: Tour of Ben’s Homesteading Survivalism SetupIf you’ve watched my videos for any length of time, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve seen guest appearances from my friend and fellow prepper(More)… |
Daily Prep Episode 308: 5 Free Permaculture VideosFor today’s “Best of Web Monday”, I wanted to share 5 free permaculture videos with you (along with their PDF downloads!). “Permaculture”, for those who(More)… | |
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Daily Prep Episode 307: How To Start A Raised Bed GardenFor those of you who have been with me since the beginning, you have already seen me attempt 2 summer gardens. This year, I thought(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 306: Storing Pasta Without Mylar Pouches-How Long Will it Keep?I got a question a week or so ago from fellow Daily Prepper Alex, from New Zealand. He writes: “Hello Dan and fellow preppers, I(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 286: Duck Hunting Field TripConfession: My Utah Duck Hunting adventure happened in December of last year, and I’m just now getting around to posting…sorry. It’s funny how sometimes you(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 277: DIY Food Storage Organizer Under Your BedLike many “urbivalists”, living in small spaces, I am always on the lookout for ways to maximize available space. So I perked up a while back,(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 243: Seed Sprouting for PreppersNow that my garden has officially kicked the bucket for the season, I’ve decided to try my hand at a little sprouting. Sprouts are cheap,(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 231: Can Your Kids Design Permaculture?The other day I came across The Permaculture Design Game, created by the guys at Seed.org. While the game doesn’t get too specific about the(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 227: Chicken Coop From a KitFor today’s “Field Trip Friday”, it’s time to talk chickens. My long time friend and fellow prepper, Gregg Hale, recently picked up a few hens.(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 224: Extending the Garden Into Fall and WinterAlright guys, time to own up to my meager summer garden results… As many of you saw in my “building box gardens” prepisode, about 3.5(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 222: Ben’s Micro HomesteadLast week I was able to hook up with my good buddy Ben from Financial Survivalist. He recently purchased a property that he will be(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 218: Guest Video on Butchering and Processing QuailWhat’s going on guys! Today’s prepisode is actually a guest prepisode from a viewer. “Robb Conn” who shares his preps on his blog, Watch, Prepare,(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 216: Caribou Hunt In Alaska!At long last guys, I finally got my footage from the caribou hunt uploaded! For those of you who might not have known, I was(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 213: Should You Learn How To Slaughter Animals?The hunting trip I recently took really opened my eyes to the process of harvesting meat from animals. Killing, skinning, gutting, and finally butchering the(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 210: Mountain House Freeze Dried Meals (in pouches)For the 12 days that I was in Alaska, guess what I was eating… Mountain House! For today’s Gear Review Wednesday, I review freeze dried(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 202: Square Foot Gardening UpdateIt’s been almost 2 months since I planted my square foot garden, and it’s time to give you an update. Unfortunately…it’s not much to show.(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 201: 6,000 Pounds of Food Produced from 1/10th Acre!Best of Web Monday, and today I throw to the Urban Homestead project, of Pasadena, CA. The Urban Homestead is the effort of the Dervaes(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 199: Country Living Grain MillAs preppers, we know that the ability to “eat what you store” is HUGE. And a grain mill is an awesome way to do just(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 197: Low Tech Aquaponics In IndiaThe Urban Farming Guys is a non-profit organization that teaches people low tech solutions for farming, livestock, aquaponics, composting, bio-gas and more. In today’s “Best(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 180: Square Foot Garden UpdateAlright guys… Here’s your first update! Last week, you guys saw me put in my box garden (in prepisode #172) . Now it’s time to(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 178: How To Turn Potatoes Into PlantsToday’s prepisode is a simple DIY for anybody looking to grow some potatoes (or sweet potatoes). I’m assuming that many people already know this, but(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 174: The Best Food Storage SystemToday it’s simple–I wanna know what you have found that’s worked to help you organize your food storage preps. I’m looking to get a little(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 172: How To Make a Square Foot GardenBecause of my move, I’m not getting near the jump I wanted to on getting my garden in, but better late than never right? (some(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 159: Should I Outsource My Food Storage?In the past 5 years, a bunch of new dehydrated and freeze dried food companies have saturated the market. They all have shiny looking websites,(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 154: City Cottage Homesteading MagazineFor today’s BOWM, I give you City Cottage. City Cottage is a downloadable ezine based out of the UK. And it’s free! In addition to(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 149: How To Raise Backyard ChickensAre you trying to figure out how to raise some backyard chickens? Look no further than backyardchickens.com I stumbled onto this site about a month(More)… |
8 Tactics to DRAMATICALLY Increase Your Garden’s YieldWe’re into April now and gardening season is upon us! If you haven’t begun your gardening efforts for this season yet, don’t worry. There’s still(More)… | |
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Daily Prep Episode 144: Square Foot Gardening ClassField Trip Friday! Today I take you along with me to a square foot gardening class taught at my local hardware store. Although it was(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 138: Heirloom vs. Hybrid SeedsJust a quick couple of thoughts today on the subject of Heirloom and Hybrid seeds. In particular: Why hybrid seeds really aren’t as bad as(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 137: Visit To Cook’s Greenhouse & Starting SeedsIn preparation for this year’s, garden, today I take you with me to one of my favorite places in Utah County–Cook’s Farm and Greenhouse. With(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 121: 3 Essentials for Composting…(or a few more)As the days begin to get a little bit longer, I’m reminded that growing season is getting closer and closer. While going through a refresher(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 113: 2 Places To Find Local Grown FoodBest of Web Monday! (and welcome to folks visiting from Bug Out Survival) Last week, Jack at The Survival Podcast interviewed Darby from Simpson Family(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 100: Book Review of Better OffLooking for a good book on self-sufficiency? Better Off is the story of an academic east coast couple that decides to go without electricity for(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 87: Fishing School With JasenFor today’s “Field Trip Friday” I hit the road with my buddy Jasen for some lessons in fishing. Depending on your area, fishing can be(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 61: How To Catch A Squirrel With A Rat TrapIt’s time for an experiment. At the Self Reliance Expo a few weeks ago, Jack Spirko told me that: rat trap + tree trunk + peanut(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 55: Want To Trade Some Seeds?Baseball cards are so ’87. In today’s best of the web Prepisode, I feature www.heirloomseedswap.com, a hub for urbivalists looking to trade heirloom seed varieties.(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 54: How To Grow An Indoor Vegetable GardenIndoor Vegetable Garden The growing season in Utah is all but over. But I’m not ready to stop growing. So at long last, I finally(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 43: Can You Grow Vegetables Indoors?With Fall officially underway, I’m ready to try another experiment. Indoor vegetable gardening. Yep, fueled by my unexpected success with the squash, and some of(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 36: How To Increase Your Garden’s Yield By 80%SQUASH! If you’ve been with me since the beginning, you’ll remember that in Prepisode 1, I planted “the latest season garden.” Just about 42(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 30: Best of The Web-Permaculture and LibertariansIt’s Monday, and it’s time for another “Best of The Web.” This week, I’m stoked to share a couple more awesome urbivalist resources. #1) Check(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 29: Garden Update!After a couple weeks of silence, you deserve to know. My beloved weed patch (a.k.a. “The Latest Season Garden” from Prepisode #1) is finally producing(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 24: The Faceless Survival Cooking ShowWe’re family right? So we can do stupid things in front of each other and still be friends? Good, because in this entire prepisode, I(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 17: Figure 4 Dead Fall Rodent ControlWe have a new roomate. As of about a week ago, my wife and I started having mouse sightings. After setting a couple dcon traps(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 16: 3 Projects That Urbivalists Need To Know AboutIn spite of all it’s potential for time wasting and filth, there is some amazing stuff to be learned on the internet. Since beginning The(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 15: The 3 Week Garden Tune UpIt’s been 21 days since I planted “The Latest Season Garden.” Now it’s time for the tune up, including: weeding thinning re-planting areas that didn’t(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 7: Can You Handle The Small Game Challenge?The gauntlet has been thrown down. The small game challenge is on. That’s right, today’s prepisode is a challenge. Today it’s about getting out of(More)… |
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Daily Prep Episode 1: Mission Impossible-The LATEST Season GardenEven though it’s already the beginning of August, I’m desperate to grow some veggies this season! So after only being in my new Utah home(More)… |
How To “Borrow” A Yard For Your GardenSpring is here, and summer is just around the corner! And if you’re an apartment dwelling “urbivalist” like me, you’ve got a dilemma on your(More)… | |
Grow Produce On Your Walls!Like many city dwellers, I’m totally yardless. No front yard, backyard, side-yard, patio, or balcony. I live in a two room apartment, on the outskirts(More)… | |
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Fresh Produce For Life–Only $50What if it were possible to have garden fresh produce for the rest of your life for only $50? And furthermore, what if you could(More)… |

















































