Homesteading

by Brian Ford

Well yes, in a sense worms can be farmed. Just as you would keep a few chickens or rabbits. My interest in worm farming (vermicomposting) goes back a few decades. Back then I would often hit one of my favorite fishing spots on the way home from work. Worms were quite expensive, two dozen red wiggle res or a dozen night crawlers for two bucks. It did not take long for my bait budget to be depleted.

I had an old defunct deep freezer in my garage. Remembering back to my childhood, an uncle had filled one with dirt, leaves, sawdust, and food scraps. There was always loads of worms in the bin.

I set out to replicate his “farm”, shredded paper, cardboard, sawdust, leaves, and some rabbit litter all went in the bin (freezer). Holes were drilled in the door for air flow. I carefully added water till the contents were damp. Now to point out this was pre Internet, I quizzed my uncle and read through the local library’s meager selections about worms.

Once I decided the bin was ready I started dumping the leftover worms from each fishing trip in the bin. All in all the endeavor went well. In a few months, I was finding juvenile worms and egg pods! I started to lightly harvest worms, my fishing habit was becoming sustainable!

During this time I noticed that the two largest sources of household waste was paper and food scraps. The worm bin reduced the flow off these two from the house to the landfill to zero! However, there are some things that should not go into the bin. Citrus waste, as the acid will burn the worms, meat and fat products as they draw pest and vermin. No cat or dog waste, as that might carry harmful microorganisms.

So practically all other food waste can go in the bin.  I had an old food processor, I would put the scraps in it with some water and pulverize the food waste before putting in the bin then covering with shredded paper. The scraps and bedding decomposed quickly and the worms were doing quite well!

How to Start Vermicomposting Video

The next spring I needed to empty the bin of castings, also I found quite a few small volunteer seedlings growing in the bin.  I moved the various seedlings out to beds in the yard and then removed and bagged about three-fourths of the castings. Just to note this took several days around my schedule.

After the clean out of the bin, I went back to adding bedding and pulverized foods. I believe I had about 8000 worms in the bin at clean out!  I have read that the population will double every 90 to 120 days.  I was at the point of being overrun with worms!

Back to the volunteer plants, there was tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, and melons along with other types of plants. Since I bought most of my produce from local growers the majority was heirloom produce. I gambled on a good return from setting out those seedlings.

And I got a great return! I did side dress the garden with castings. That summer and fall my dehydrator was working 24/7 to keep up. I had so much fresh produce I was making runs to the local farmers market selling the excess, plus bags of castings and boxes of worms.

In order to save me some bait money, I used items that normally would go to the landfill and in turn ended making a fair amount of money, and saving quite a lot of money.  Some of the seedlings turned out to be fruit trees, like apple, peach, and pear.

No, they did not bare true, but good scions could and was grafted to them to provide fruits.  Same with some grape seedlings, they were transplanted and then later grafted with more desirable cuttings.

If you have more worms than you can use, sell, give away, they can be used for chicken food. I have started a new smaller bin recently, so I expect by spring I will be swimming in worms and castings!

Should you want to try worm farming there is a lot of info on the webs, a little bit of reading and you should find answers to any questions you may have. The savings and earning potential will take a few months but it is defiantly doable.  Have fun if you tackle worm farming.

By BS Garrison

“Note: This article was sent to me back in 2016 and was first published on my old blog, however, with everything that is currently going on at the southern border and all of the back and forth in Washington DC about building a wall I thought it would be interesting to repost this article again… M.D. Creekmore.”

In the early 1990s, we took our homeschooled children and headed to the Ozark Mountains of Missouri. Things looked bad for the USA at the time. We worried about an economic collapse, failing schools, dangerous cities and the eroding values of our society. So, we bought a 23-acre farm just a few miles from the headwaters of a spring-fed river and began our homesteading life, planning to become as self-sufficient as possible.

We raised our own vegetables, berries, and fruit. We had chickens for eggs and chickens to eat and 4 dairy goats for milk. Our 100 ft. deep well supplied the clearest, best-tasting water you can imagine.

Our neighbors were self-sufficient long before we arrived and together we bought grass-fed beef and organically raised hogs, sent them to the local butcher shop for slaughter, then gathered in our neighbor’s basement where they set up stainless steel tables, electric saws, and meat grinders and we processed the meat and readied the hams and bacon for curing.

Later, we smoked the hams and bacon with apple wood, passed through a long pipe into 50-gallon barrels we turned into smokers. At the end of the day, we ate chili and drank homemade elderberry wine and played music with our friends.

It was a great life – the best. We acquired practical homesteading and survival skills. The children grew up, got married and left for jobs in the city and we found ourselves alone, managing a large operation by ourselves. Exhausted, we reluctantly sold the homestead.

Fast forward a few years and things look much worse for the USA than I had ever imagined. We have a government that actively works against the very people who put them in power. Taxes are so high that ‘we the people’ are enslaved to the government for life.

Our leaders believe that laws are for the little people, not for them, and they enrich themselves while using the law to harass and persecute their political enemies. There seems to be no escape. Maybe the answer is to leave the USA.

Three years ago we decided to visit Mexico and several other Latin American countries that we had heard welcomed expatriates. We wanted a life that was free from government interference and oppression, but that allowed us to practice some of our homesteading skills.

Our first stop was Jalisco, Mexico, where people from north of the border are encouraged to settle and where there is an existing infrastructure that supports expats. We had planned to stay only a short time, but we ended up staying for three years, so far. Here are just a few reasons why life in Mexico appeals to us and may appeal to you:

Lower cost of living

Everyday life is a lot cheaper in Mexico. Our electric bill arrives bi-monthly and comes to about $10. You read that right. We use propane to cook and heat the water. Electricity runs fans in the summer, refrigerator, washing machine, and a water pump.

We shop in the local markets where the food is fresh and cheap. I can buy 2 kilos of tomatoes (4 ½ pounds) for 15 pesos, about $.80. Public transportation is efficient and runs often, taking you from the village, forty miles into the city of Guadalajara for about $3.00. You don’t need a car to get around in Mexico. Because so few of the local people have vehicles, the towns are compact and walkable. We live on $1700/month and figure we could easily cut that cost by $500/month.

High quality medical and dental care

If you become a permanent resident, you are eligible for the state-run medical program for about $300/year, or you can pay for the reasonable doctors’ visits out of pocket. Dental services cost about 25% of the cost of similar services in the USA and the quality of care is equal to, or superior, to what you can find north of the border.

Year-round growing season and rich soil

We live in the area known as the volcanic axis so the soil is rich. This is an agricultural area that produces every type of vegetable. Major growers like Dole and Driskoll’s have established large farms here, producing raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries for export.

You can buy the berries at a fraction of the cost you pay in the supermarket in the USA. Because of the abundance of fresh vegetables and fruit, you will eat healthier in Mexico than you ever did in the USA.

We drink coffee a local vendor brings from Vera Cruz and then grinds to order from the back of his truck. At home, we grow an abundance of herbs and vegetables in our container garden and have fresh lettuce, basil, and spinach for salads year-round.

An environment that welcomes self-sufficiency and entrepreneurship

If you become a permanent resident, you may work in Mexico or start a business. There are many expatriates from all over the world who have opened restaurants or created businesses to meet the needs of expatriates, or who sell services that cater to tourists. Some home gardeners sell their organic produce or at home-prepared foods and cheeses, honey, from beehives and health-related products at one of several markets in the area.

Better quality of life

Living in Mexico changes the way you look at life. The people are less materialistic and pretty soon that attitude rubs off on you. You worry less, spend more time over lunch, in conversation with family and friends instead of staring at a cellphone.

You will build relationships with like-minded people who have also decided to escape from the oppressive, constantly monitored rat race that has become our lot in the USA. Is it safe? When we first arrived I asked the same question and a man who had lived here for two decades advised us not to start a brothel or become engaged in the drug trade and we would be fine.

After three years of living in Mexico, I have found his advice to be true. We have never had a problem with our neighbors, who have been kind and welcoming.

I am proposing a different way of achieving a more self-sufficient and freer lifestyle, especially for those who do not have the ability or desire to live on a remote homestead. I know from experience that it is a hard life for those who do not have children to help, or who are older and no longer have the physical stamina to begin homesteading. Your survival skills can still be put to use in a life that is easier, less stressful.

We have friends who have acquired every piece of survival equipment available. They have stockpiled non-GMO seeds and freeze-dried foods, canning equipment and canning jars, and a large library of books about every topic regarding self-sufficiency and survival.

Yet, they have never planted a seed, never killed a chicken to eat, never canned tomatoes or made a jar of jelly. They have the stuff to survive, but not the skills or experience to live the life if it becomes necessary.

The truth is that not all of us are capable of beginning from scratch to build a self-sufficient homestead. Either we don’t have the money or the skills, the physical strength or help from younger, stronger family members.

One way to survive – and even thrive – is to move to a place that makes it easy to live a better life, one that requires less money while providing some distance between you and the mess that has become the USA.  Who knows? Your place in Mexico may even become the refuge for loved ones when times get difficult.

by Jason Smith

Living on the side of a mountain is nice, but it raises some interesting challenges to gardening. Since the land my house sits on was literally carved out of the mountain, the soil is blasted rocks and dirt, leaving much to be desired when trying to garden. My solution to this issue was to stay above ground, using pots and barrels as well as building a raised bed more than a foot off the ground.

Raised Beds

The construction of a raised bed requires some thought. Some considerations include the space you have to work with, the materials you will need, the number and type of plants you want to put in, and your ability to reach the plants once they are in the bed.

We don’t have much of a back yard, so we opted to make a smaller bed. The final dimensions for our bed are 7 feet long, 3 feet wide and 1 foot deep. The bed is raised over a foot off the ground on sturdy wooden legs. The dimensions for a raised bed can be altered any way you like to accommodate your space and needs.

Since we had some money saved up, we chose to purchase all new materials to construct the bed. The frame of the bed was created using four 8 foot long boards and four 4 foot long boards. To save money, these boards were not pressure treated. For the legs, I used a pressure treated 4 x 4 cut to 5 feet long for the front legs and 4 feet long for the back legs (the bed sits on a slight slope).

Using four 8 foot long boards and four 4 foot long boards the sides of the boxes come to life. To save money these boards were not pressure treated.

For the legs, I used a pressure treated 4×4 that was 8 feet long and cut it down to the desired lengths. The front legs are cut to 5 feet long and the rear legs cut to 4 feet long. One foot is used lost depth of the bed

I stapled chicken wire to the underside of the bed and reinforced it with slats of reclaimed wood on the short ends of the bed. For added support, I used leftover boards spaced about 1 foot apart across the bed. The best support was given by 5 boards cut 4 foot long.

We applied 3 coats of exterior latex paint to minimize moisture damage. Then, I lined the sides and bottom of the bed with a garden cloth. Garden cloth allows water to pass through the bottom of the bed and discourages root rot without the loss of precious dirt.

Before adding the dirt I leveled the whole bed on all four sides. Once the dirt was added, I checked again to make sure the bed was level. With a perfect level, you don’t have to worry about the dirt running off the plant roots or piling up on the low side of the bed. I also added an irrigation system to my raised bed that consisted of a pipe, a spigot, and a soaker hose.

When the bed was finished, we planted lettuce, 4 pepper plants, 4 cucumber plants, carrots, onions, and spinach. It turns out that there is plenty of extra room for more plants later in the season. You have to be careful with some plants as they want to run and can take over a bed. To get around this we planted the cucumbers in the back of the bed and added a web of hung twine for the plant to run on.

Reach is something important to keep in mind. You have to design bed so that you can reach at least the midway point for weeding and harvesting. However, if you have tall or running plants in the back of the bed you won’t be able to reach in from that direction. Another thing to consider is how much do you want to bend when tending your garden? Raised beds can be built as high or as low as you want.

Pros:

• Flexible in design
• Visually appealing
• Keeps some critters out

Cons:

• Can be costly
• Limited space once it’s built
• Requires some extra watering

Potato Barrels

Potatoes are wonderfully resilient root veggies. I have heard of people growing them in all sorts of conditions. The most interesting was a stack of tires. While I couldn’t get my fiancé on board with that, we compromised on the purchase of two plastic containers for our potato barrels.

Once we had our barrels, we added a layer of dirt followed by a layer of potato quarters with good eyes on them, repeating the process until the containers were full. A few months later, we have large potato plants and tiny potatoes growing. It was surprisingly easy and takes up a 5 foot by 10-foot space. If all goes well we will have a few pounds of potatoes with very little space cost.

Window Boxes

Personally, I love window boxes as they are flexible, well-shaped, and do not take up a lot of space. We currently have 3 24-inch window boxes set out. One with flowers (not food but it makes the lady of the house happy), one with green onions, and one with leafy lettuce.

My fiancé planted a bunch of marigolds in the first box. They are pretty but don’t taste good.

Since the leafy lettuce can be planted closely together and then thinned we loaded it down and now have a thick patch of lettuce for salads. The real benefit is that if you do this correctly you can cut the lettuce and it will re-grow.

Green onions need almost no space to grow and can be quickly and easily replanted. We eat a lot of these in salads and with pinto beans and cornbread, and the window box allows us to grow a crap ton (a very technical term) of them in a small amount of space. The trick is to replace a new bulb in the hole of each onion you pull to enjoy the yummy returns all season.

Final Thoughts

The most important thing I have taken away from figuring out how to garden in a limited space is that, with a little creativity, you can garden successfully no matter how small your space is. Of course, you have to pick the right plants and understand your limitations.

I know that I cannot grow corn in my limited space, but I can grow enough other plants to make that trade-off worthwhile. Fresh, homegrown fruits and vegetables taste better than anything you can get in the store. If you have limited gardening space, container gardening can help you experience this firsthand.

By TN Mommy

I grow vegetables and fruits in my container garden, plus I’m working on installing some built in garden boxes in the rear of my yard, but that’s about all I can do for now since I live in suburbia and the HOA will fine the shit out of me if I put chickens and goats in my backyard.

For those that don’t know me, I am a Christian and I believe that the good Lord, in his infinite wisdom, surely has created an alternative out there.  So I did my research and stumbled upon the miraculous Moringa tree.  Not only are these trees beautiful, but they also provide an abundant supply of multi-vitamins.

Moringa leaves contain:

• 2 times the protein of yogurt
• 7 times the vitamin C of oranges
• 3 times the potassium of bananas
• 4 times the vitamin A of carrots
• 4 times the calcium of milk

In addition to that, Moringa leaves also contain vitamins B1, B2, and B3, as well as chromium, copper, fiber, iron, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, and zinc.  There are allegedly medicinal uses of the Moringa tree as well.  Some uses include natural antibiotic, help for stomach illness, cold remedy, etc. 

I must include a disclaimer here because I have not tried using Moringa as a remedy for any common ailments.  There is plenty of information available online.

I’m sure by now all of you are thinking, “Wow, I gotta get one of these.”  Moringa trees are not indigenous to the United States, but there are places that grow them.  I purchased my seeds and a couple of seedlings from Moringa Farms in California (www.moringafarms.com).

Shipping is fast and their customer service is out of this world.

My first two saplings did not survive, so I contacted them for advice and was immediately shipped replacements.  The next two saplings grew just fine, but sadly one of them was brutally murdered by my 1-year old who saw me harvesting my cucumbers and tomatoes, and decided to “help.”  My remaining Moringa tree is thriving quite well in a large pot on my deck and it grows faster than most weeds.  You can see in the picture below just how big it has gotten.

Now your next question is probably “How do I grow one of these?”  Moringa Farms will include instructions when you receive your seeds or saplings.  These trees are very resilient and will grow fine in most places.

They will go dormant in winter if you live someplace that gets cold, which is why I potted mine.  I’m going to bring it into the house when it starts to get cold.  They will grow in your yard just fine and your neighbors will have no clue that it’s anything other than a very pretty tree.

Once you have a sizable Moringa tree you can start using the leaves.  You can eat them fresh or dry them and mix the powder with tea, smoothies, or whatever.  Any other information you need can easily be found online.  I have not eaten more than a few leaves just to try them and see how they taste since I have about 4 bottles of SpongeBob multivitamins in my pantry.

How to Best Grow, Harvest, Dry & Profit from Moringa in Your Backyard

Does anyone know anything else that can be grown as a natural multivitamin?  Please post below…

by The Mid-west Mrs.

Can I Raise Meat Rabbits In My Backyard? Yes, You Can!

I had rabbits when I was young but only as pets. Our children had rabbits growing up, again only as pets. We now have rabbits but they are for food. You have most likely a basic understanding of rabbits so this article focuses on how we manage our rabbit husbandry. We maintain 3 does and two bucks.

Getting your rabbits

It is not so much where to look but what to look for. Uncrowded caging, clean fur, no drainage from eyes or noses. No smeared loose looking poo in the cage bottoms and clean food/water bowls.

Check the fur for parasites, look in the ears to make sure they are clean. And no rabbits sneezing allowed!

Check for the sex. It is not too hard once you know how. Here is a link

http://www.pet-informed-veterinary-advice-online.com/sexing-rabbits.html

We found our rabbits on Craig list. The young boy wanted $6.00 for each and since everything looked good I was happy to hand him the money. We brought home one white buck and one brown brindle doe at about 10 weeks of age.

Transport them in a cardboard box or small dog kennel. Place hay in the container if possible because they will pee and poo even on the shortest drive. Do not use newspaper. They may eat it and cause a blockage. Take note of the weather and road conditions too, you don’t want to transport them in the back of your pick up if it is freezing outside or you have a 4×4 road to drive on.

Plan on quarantining any new rabbits you bring in from your current stock of bunnies for at least 10-14 days. Keep them as far away as possible during this time.

Here is some info on breeds http://www.arba.net/breeds.htm Maybe you will want Angoras for spinning their wool? Be careful, they require lots of grooming too!

Housing your rabbits

Colony or protected caging? I have never utilized colony style housing of rabbits so I will only discuss protected caging.

Your rabbits need to stay dry, cool and safe from predators. A portion of their cage needs to be covered or needs to be under a lean-to, in a building or such. It needs to be high enough to stay out of reach of raccoons and coyotes. Could you imagine every night being visited by a beast that is trying to get you?

We think we have a pretty good solution. Our rabbits are housed in a “dog trot” shed. This is a long rectangular outbuilding with solid doors on each end. On the entry door end, DH also put a screen door on the inside made of poultry wire and wood frame. On the other end, it can open up into a fully enclosed chain link fence area. (Think dog kennel). Since the fencing butts up against the shed the 4^th wall of fencing was put to use as the top. A prop pole sits in the middle underneath for support for when it snow or rains as we have it covered. We have strong white tarps on the top, north and east sides. It is open on the south while the building is on the west. We can close the door between the shed and the “yard” when we want but rarely do.

This yard serves several purposes. The bunnies do get to run in it but mostly it is so we can pick grass and food for them in bad weather without getting wet and to have a cooler spot for them in a hot weather spell.

While we do employ frozen bottles for them when necessary in a grid downtime we plan to just turn the cages over on the door side with the door open and the rabbits will be able to dig down in the ground to get cool. I have seen some amazing excavation work done by them. You do need to be careful in not letting them dig too close to the edge of the fencing.

The cages are one per bunny and are set up on rail shelves attached to the walls of the shed. On these rails are triangle shaped sticks with the cages sitting on top of them. This gives the cages support and yet leaves almost no area for urine or droppings to collect. Round rails would be best also for the same reason. We have regular board rails and I do have to clear them from time to time. Some folks prefer to hang their cages instead. I don’t because I do not like the idea of them swinging as I work around them.

Do plan on scrubbing cages at least quarterly because rabbit urine has a lot of calcium in it that builds up on the wire and when mixed with shedding fur can make for some crud accumulating on the wire.

Make sure your cages allow for your bunnies to stretch out, take a hop or two and to stand up on their hind feet. The floor must allow the droppings to pass through and it should be at least ½” grid. ¼”grid is too small for most meat rabbits. Doors should be big enough to allow nest boxes through.

You can buy your cages or make your cages. We have done both and have lots of different sizes and configurations.

We find we clean out from under the cages about every 2 weeks and since the floor of this building is wood (wish it was dirt) we use straw or dried grass to help soak up moisture from the urine. In never gets too smelly and generally does not have any fly problems.

By the way, we keep our bucks caged across the shed from the does. When we had them side by side it seemed we had less breeding success and smaller litters. Now that there is some distance between them we have better results. Maybe this has something to do with the does being induced ovulators.

Feeding your rabbits

In order for rabbits to help sustain you in a SHTF situation you would want to feed them as cheap and as easily as possible. We have chosen to go as natural as possible. We feed a lot of grass, weeds, garden leavings, brambles, herbs, tree twigs and sometimes a little fruit or dried bread (treats!) and grains. We still feed some pellet food regularly but very little.

Grains are chicken scratch (unmedicated), grass seed heads, corn, sunflowers and other kinds of seed. These are fed sparingly, only about a tablespoon a day in the winter to all and only to lactating does and growing kits otherwise… Check out this link. http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=211220. Grain will put fat on your rabbits. You will see it when you butcher. Too much fat can make it hard on your breeding program though

I think this year we will use the gutter gardening technique we learned from the Wolf Pack. We will install the gutters on the chain link and therefore have even more available food growing space for the bunnies close at hand. You gotta just love being able to pick fresh food in the rain and not get wet!

If you use green food introduce it slowly over a two week period to your bunnies. You need to give their gut time to develop the correct bacteria for digesting new foods. In doing so I have never ended up having any trouble with diarrhea. If you do then back off the forage for a day and give a saltine cracker or a small piece of dry bread. Keeping them on both bagged food and green food can help out in case one or the other food source gives out. You need to make sure you feed both types at least every other day to keep them used to it.

I look for food and water bowls at thrift shops and garage sales. This saves a lot of money because you will want at least 3 times the number of bowls you think you need. I will not pay $5.00 per bowl at a pet store or farm outlet! The soup bowls that look like a coffee cup are great. They are squat, heavy and don’t tip easy. We prefer crocks or bowls because rabbits spray urine and it is a pain to disassemble the hook on feed bins to clean them.

In the winter fill the water bowls only halfway full. This saves room in the crock for another filling later and less switching out of the frozen bowls. Do the watering first and while the bunnies are tanking up go about your other hutch chores. Re-check the water levels just before leaving. This has worked out so well in the winter for us. Bring full frozen bowls back to the warmth of the house to thaw out in a bucket.

Breeding your rabbits

We breed only in the spring and fall. Some of this is in consideration of food availability, rest for the does, and heat tolerance in the summer.

I sometimes breed does back to back litters depending on how many kits they had. Every doe we have had has been a great first-time mother. I do believe that tendency can be genetic and also on making sure your does are between 8 and 11 months old for the first breeding (meat rabbits). Any earlier or later the physiological and mental states of the rabbit may inhibit success. This is my own findings, not scientific in basis. It seems to work for me so I go with it.

I also breed the does about one week apart from each other so I am not overwhelmed at birthing time or butchering time.

I let the buck have 2 successful attempts in the morning of the day of breeding and then again about 4 hours later. This can take as little as a couple of minutes. I have found that the doe seems “entranced” immediately after the act and that this is an easy time to get the doe picked up and back to her cage. Wait too long and she will be up and running again. Here is another link for detailed information

http://www.debmark.com/rabbits/breeding.htm.

For replacement stock, I choose from our spring litters. This gives good grow out feeding on natural foods readily available at that time. We also have “baby savers” this is a miniature fence wall we put around the opening of the nest box to catch baby bunnies if they catch a ride out of the nest box on Mom before they are old enough to come out. This keeps them from crawling to the side of the cage and out between the wires to fall on the floor.

THE FOREGOING MAY BE DEEMED UNSETTLING FOR THE SQUEAMISH OR JUST PLAIN GRAFFIC!

Butchering your rabbits

Ok, so you know the whole purpose of this is to be able to raise rabbits for food. This does mean you have to end their life by killing them.

I do not handle our rabbits a lot unless I am picking replacements for breeding stock. I do not give them names. Everyone in the family knows they are raised for food.

On the chosen morning I offer prayers for the rabbits. I ask that I be swift, deliberate and gentle all at the same time. I do not take this action lightly. They have not eaten since last night and I do not remove them from their mother.

I choose to break their neck/skull by stepping on the head and pulling (a good swift yank) upwards with the back legs. This is similar to the broomstick method but only requires one person. They will twitch and quiver for a few moments but they are already gone. I take them back to the kitchen sink and cut the throat for blood drainage and proceed to skin, gut, and process the meat.

More links http://www.rudolphsrabbitranch.com/rrrpt1.htm this is all words, scroll down towards the bottom of the page.

This is a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iali_mkReYA yes, graphic content.

One last note…it is a little unnerving to sometimes see a heart on the kitchen counter still with a heartbeat but that just proves that the saying “it’s just nerves” is true.

Cooking your rabbits

Rabbits have been a Godsend to me. I am allergic to chicken but with rabbit and rabbit broth I can still have a lot of Chicken type dishes. Rabbit can even masquerade as burger and sausage. Hoppy Joes anyone? The DH makes a great Hoppy Joe. A little Worcestershire sauce and beef bouillon cubes mixed with browned ground rabbit in the basic tomato paste sauce with some spices and there you go!

He also makes a chili dog sauce and we make Italian sausage for pizza too. One of the best rabbit dishes though is an adapted recipe for General Tsao’s Chicken. Just substitute rabbit and enjoy! Here’s the link http://www.chinesefood-recipes.com/chinese_poultry_recipes/general_tsao_chicken_recipe.php

I can rabbit both with the bones and without, I make broth too. We make and freeze sausage. We save the ribcages for making soups/broth. The rest can easily be used for almost any dish.

Now, most of our rabbit we pre-cook in the pressure cooker, even for fried rabbit. The exceptions would be for ground rabbit recipes and sausage. The DH doesn’t get to eat much chicken anymore because of me and pressure cooking it seems to bring the texture closer to what he thinks store-bought chicken is like. It’s the least I can do for him.

So here it all is. I’m sure I have left a thing or two out but if anybody has questions just ask. Hopefully, this will give those who want to try to raise rabbits some needed information and please remember to take these ideas and adapt them to your own situations, whether it is backyard suburbia, farm or apartment…