Montana is not the only new animal who joined our farm recently. Meet Hazel and Ivy, two Satin Rabbits that we plan to use as breeding does once they reach maturity. Hazel is a 12 week old brown seal doe and Ivy is a 10 week old blue doe. They have been living in our basement in a temporary enclosure for several days and are definitely starting to warm up to everyone already. The girls are going to properly socialize these young ladies in no time!
We were supposed to get a buck as well, but the one we had picked out ended up being another doe after all, so we are going to wait a month or so for the next litter to be ready and hope for a buck that meets our needs. We are in no real hurry to start breeding as this will mainly serve as a hobby for Mrs J and the kids with the hope of many added benefits (but there will be more on that in later posts...)
In preparation for starting this new endeavor we did our homework and visited several local rabbitries before settling on a breed. Satins are beautiful rabbits and are a fabulous dual purpose breed good for meat, pelts and as loving pets. They tend to eat less feed than the common meat rabbit breeds such as the New Zealand and Californian rabbits and in our humble opinion are much prettier to look at. That being said, because of how beautiful they are, it is definitely going to be a challenge to follow through with our intentions to slaughter them. Thankfully our hunter friend is willing to help us with this part in exchange for some healthy, all natural, (and delicious) rabbit meat.
Before ultimately making the decision to raise rabbits on our homestead we bought some rabbit meat from a local rabbitry in order for everyone in the family to decide if they even liked the taste.
I simply seasoned the meat with salt and pepper, massaged it with olive oil, and marinaded it for 12 hours or so in the fridge in the olive oil and salt and pepper mixture. I peeled and cut up some of our garden fresh potatoes and carrots to roast along with the rabbit, sliced 1/2 sweet onion and minced 2 cloves of garlic, mixed them with the juice of one lemon and used this onion, garlic, lemon juice mix to stuff the cavity of the rabbit. I then topped the rabbit with 3 strips of bacon for added fat (rabbit meat is very high in protein but has a very low fat content,) added 1/2 C. of water and 1/2 C. of apple juice to the roasting pan, topped the entire roast with rosemary and a little more salt and pepper. I roasted the rabbit at 350 degrees F for approx. 45 mins. In order to ensure that the rabbit didn't dry out I tented the rabbit with foil for the first 20 minutes and then removed the foil for the last 25 minutes. I removed the rabbit from the pan once it was done and returned the pan of vegetables to the oven to broil for about 5 minutes until the veggies were good crispy! After EVERYONE in our family savored this delicious meal, the decision was essentially made and we found ourselves not 2 days later out "shopping" for our new rabbit friends.
It was a little weird to handle, season and cook a little bunny, but once I got past the idea, it really didn't feel much different than preparing chicken for dinner. It really helps that our little farm children seem to have a healthy handle on the "circle of life." In addition to being able to provide their growing bodies with nutritious, clean food, we are continually amazed by the countless life lessons that they are learning on our small farm in the woods.
Mrs. J :)
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