Many people think I’m crazy to have so many animals. They think that 8 children is ridiculous and wonder why I would also have a mini farm as well. If I even hint at feeling frustrated or overwhelmed, the immediate response is, “Just get rid of your animals!” (I guess they say that because they can’t say, “Just get rid of your children?”

I’m not going to explain why I won’t give up my animals (that would take a book). But I will explain why I keep my bunny rabbits.

We have a huge garden. And what every garden needs to be productive year after year is fertilizer. I won’t use chemical fertilizers on my garden (the subject of another book). What I do use is manure – and lots of it. One of the best producers of manure for the home garden is rabbits. Since you don’t have to compost rabbit manure, you can put it straight onto the plants.

So we got rabbits. And if I’m going to raise rabbits, I might as well raise meat rabbits, right? After all – do you know how much it costs to buy organic chicken for a family of 10?

I had never eaten rabbit meat before. And I admit to being a little skeptical. But a friend of mine gave me one of her butchered rabbits and I cooked it and pulled it off the bone just like you would a chicken. And then it was time for the true test…

I fed it to Jim.

Now, for those of you who don’t know Jim, he is an extremely picky eater. If he’ll eat it, anyone will.

And Jim didn’t believe it wasn’t chicken! Yippeeee! It passed the Jim test. So I pulled the rest of the meat off the bone and made what Jim termed, “Bunny Burritos”.

OK, now for those of you who are completely freaked out by the thought of eating rabbit, sorry. But if you eat chicken, it really isn’t very different. If you are a vegetarian, sorry again, but we’re not.

So, now I have an animal that is easy to keep, raises its own young, provides lots of super manure, and great tasting meat. Oh – and the best part – they eat my grass and weeds! We have a movable pen that they go around the lawn on, happily eating grass. We don’t keep them in individual cages at all. In this photo, they are in their winter quarters. They get rabbit pellets and as many greens and vegetables scraps as we have available. (This rabbit – I think it is Clover – is checking out a radish plant I threw in.)

Jonas

Now I do admit that most of our friends don’t handle the fact that we eat rabbits very well. We went to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving Dinner. I asked her what we should bring. I teasingly asked her if we should bring the turkey. Her response, “You’d better not bring any meat, that way we don’t have to wonder about what we’re eating.” She was only half teasing back 😉

The grandparents have yet to try one of our rabbits. But Mom and John are coming for a visit before Christmas… bunny burritos, maybe?

Jonas