The great rabbit breeding experiment begins.

So as I have mentioned before, I grew up in a hunting household.  One thing we nearly always had in the freezer was cotton tail rabbits.  It is open season on them in Texas, and in South Texas, there really is no shortage of them.  We ate them year round.  The two most common ways my mother prepared them was in mole sauce and Rabbit ala King which she'd serve over toast.   I've cooked rabbit a few times since I stopped hunting using store bought rabbits, and those are just as good.  However, at $10 a pound, it becomes a rather expensive dinner.

A couple of months ago, the NY Times ran an article about foodies in Brooklyn taking a class on raising and harvesting rabbits at home for cooking.  That is an option I had never considered before.  It is certainly a more affordable way to go.  I knew I'd have no problem dispatching a rabbit myself, and I have years of experience in the dressing and butchering of the critters.  I mentioned it to Cristela and to my great surprise, she was totally in favor of the idea.

A week or two after I read the article, all the people on our cul de sac had a little block party.  Over my fourth or fifth glass of wine, I mentioned what I was thinking of doing to a couple of neighbors.  None were too disturbed by the idea.  Kelly, the gal next door, was excited about having rabbits she could bring her kid to see, but said "I'll be sure not to get too attached."  The guy who lives across the street from me said, "I've got a hutch you're welcome to."  More wine was consumed, and we moved on to other topics.  I wasn't even sure if they'd remember the conversation.

A few weeks later, I returned home from a weekend out of town to find a nice sized (8' x 3' x 3') hutch sitting on my front lawn.  A gift like that really gets the ball rolling.  The next week Cristela began scanning the classified ads for people selling rabbits.  She looked for a few weeks, but finally decided to let Craig's list do the work for her, and put up an ad asking for bunnies.  This weekend, we bought three californians from a lady in Spicewood.  They are much heftier animals than a cotton tail.  We got two does and a buck on the recommendation of the seller.

We named them Buck, T, and Alice, which is only amusing if you watch The United States of Tara.  The name seemed appropriate since they all look the same.

If all goes well, we should have little baby bunnies in four to six weeks.