Rabbits

100+ Breeding adult rabbits

The Importance of Rabbits

Rabbits are what really got me thinking more about farming than simply homesteading. I grew up in the rural Midwest, and we didn’t have a lot of money. Some of my fondest memories are around food. Real food. I remember us buying a share of a cow and the freezer full of the meat it yielded. I remember my parents getting offerings from local ranchers and producers.

We knew our food. Fast forward 40 years, and I felt disconnected. It was all well and good to have a little homestead veggie plot and fresh eggs. I wanted to really be back in touch with my food supply. I wanted to be more self-sufficient. And rabbits were the answer.

From an ecological standpoint, rabbits make a lot of sense. In the two years it would take to bring a cow to market weight, I can produce the same weight in rabbits in just a few square feet of space, and using 1/10th the water, or less. Rabbits produce the highest protein % of any commercial meat, including venison. And their droppings make an ideal fertilizer year round. In short, adding rabbits to the mix was the turning point in recognizing the farm’s potential. As soon as local chefs and home cooks found out I was raising rabbits, the demand far outpaced my supply.

Fast forward a few years, and my rabbitry has grown to more than 100 breeding adults. I started with pedigreed show stock from some world-renowned breeders right here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I raise New Zealand Whites, Californians, Champagne D’Argent, and a “mutt” line of rabbits that are crosses of the above mixed with Rex and English Spot.

Rabbits are an incredibly lean protein and all white meat with a delicate flavor. Many special-needs diets turn to rabbit as a source of high protein and palatability. I am always happy to talk rabbits and why I am such a believer in raising them at an appropriate scale, in an enriched environment, where they can exercise and run and hop and stand on their hind legs to survey the world around them. They’re marvelous partners here on the farm, and I can’t imagine farming without them.