Raising Rabbits is a Hare-raising Business

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RABBIT COOKERY

One easy way to build business is to serve rabbit at company dinners. First, though, you must know how to cook it and the following suggestions should give you some ideas. (You'll note that since rabbit has no real fat of its own-most of these recipes require you to add some. Bacon is best. Otherwise, anything you can do with store-bought meat can also be done with your own home raised hare.)

PAN FRY: Parboil the meat about 20 minutes with sliced onion and a dash of sage. Remove the pieces and fry them in bacon grease or vegetable oil.

SHAKE AND BAKE: Proceed as with chicken, but cook the meat under light foil.

BAKE: Parboil a whole rabbit 20 minutes. Wrap it in bacon strips, followed by loose foil, and bake it for one hour. (Mr. Bell didn't mention oven temperature, but around 3500 should be OK. MOTHER.)

STEW: Boil the meat off the bone, cut up vegetables, and stew them with the boned rabbit until the ingredients are done. Stewed rabbit is stringy but good.

SAUSAGE: Boil the meat until it's very tender, remove from bones and run it through a home food grinder. Mix in a pound of store-bought sausage, make the combination into patties,and fry them.

SALE OF LIVE RABBITS

A hand-printed sign in your feed dealer's place of business will probably lead to some sales of live rabbits as breeding stock for other beginners. You might also check your state laws on trade in Easter bunnies. If they're not supposed to be sold as pets, you can omit that word from the ad and offer "Easter bunnies: live (price), dressed (price)." (You may prefer not to sell pets at all, except to friends whose homes you know well. The hapless Easter bunny is likely to be overfed and mauled to death by small children, or loved for one day and then neglected by a family that doesn't want the long term responsibility of a domestic animal. Slaughter for food is far more humane. -MOTHER.)

FERTILIZER

Rabbit manure won't burn plants as do chicken droppings, and it can be used as is on any flower or vegetable. If you sprinkle a little lime under the pens to hold down the odor, you'll also add a much needed ingredient to this fertilizer.

You should be able to get at least 5d a pound for any manure you don't put on your own garden. Rose growers and worm farms pay the top dollar for this product. (Did you save your heavy feedbags? They're ideal containers for the sale and transport of rabbit droppings.)

If any of your customers raise flowers, you might give them a 25 pound bag of fertilizer along with a big meat order. Remember, your business is-built on good will.

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