Rabbits are viewed differently here in France the way they are in England. In England, a domestic rabbit is for children to pet and wild rabbits, of which there many, a pest. For the ethics of eating the game through to how to prepare the carcass for some recipes, look at books by Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall, The River Cottage Cookbook pp 364.367 and The River Cottage Meat Book pp 150.177.
Here, rabbits are raised for meat and sold in butchers and supermarkets or high on a domestic scale in hutches in the garden. The meat, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, is "highly nutritious, low in fat, low cholesterol and high in protein and certain vitamins and minerals ". Our friends Julie (pictured above) and Samuel have recently started their production chain of meat by a pair of rabbits housed in their separate hutches. A doe can give birth from 25 to 40 offspring per year.
Unfortunately, their female took an extreme aversion to the male and strove with him whenever they were presented rather than make love like crazy ... rabbits! Their solution was to eat the rabbit and buy another. In The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency John Seymour warns that the rabbit must always be taken at the rabbit hutch and never the contrary, "or there will be fighting" p 124. You may be able to guess how Julie and Samuel were the ... oops!
I was blogging in English since a few months, but because we are in France, it is not too soon as I start blogging bilingual, so here goes. And I'm sorry for my bad French!
