One of the first animal purchases we made was a pregnant Californian rabbit. We had learned that rabbits are a very economical meat animal. They are cheap to feed, they are quiet and gentle and take up little space, and one rabbit will feed a family of 4 for dinner. They taste like chicken. Seriously! They don’t smell like it when cooking, but the taste and texture is just like chicken, though it is drier. Rabbits have very little fat on them. My favorite way to cook them is in a crock pot for a few hours. Then I take the meat off the bones and use it in enchiladas, “chicken” and biscuits, or some other casserole. If you want to just eat the roasted rabbit plain, keep a large glass of water nearby. Or make a lot of gravy.
We chose Californians because they are a large, meat breed. We also sold some of our first babies to a pet store and a couple of other people as pets, but mostly they are here for food. Our oldest daughter began to show them at the 4-H fair, and then also got some mini-lops for diversity. She is no longer showing rabbits and we sold some and ate most of the rest. Currently we have just 4 mini-lops left. We’re looking into buying a pair of some other breed that is a little heavier than the mini-lops. We still eat them, but it often takes 2 rabbits for a meal now.