Posted on 02/16/2009 12:58:39 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Giant rabbits to return to Spanish menus
Spaniards will soon be enjoying a diet of giant rabbit under plans to reintroduce the rare breed for human consumption.
By Fiona Govan in Madrid
The Valencia Agricultural Research Institute has launched a breeding programme of the rare Valenciano rabbit and predicts that it could be on supermarket shelves within three years.
It is hoped that the animals, which can grow as big as a lamb and produce 7kgs (15lbs) of meat, will prove popular as a healthy and cheap alternative to red meat.
The Valenciano breed was established in 1912 when farmers cross bred large domestic Spanish rabbits with the imported Flemish Giant variety and for decades it appeared on dinner tables across the nation.
Vicente Garcia, the agricultural engineer in charge of the project, said: "These animals were valued by farmers for their meat and the speed at which they bred, often producing up to 16 young in each litter."
During the first half of last century the enormous rabbits were exported across Europe and to Cuba, Argentina and Chile but by the 1970s they were close to extinction in Spain.
"Only a very few examples of the breed still exist in Spain," Mr Garcia told Spanish newspaper 20minutos. The breed had only survived in two isolated areas of Spain, he added, because the giant rabbits were bred by enthusiasts as pets.
The three year project, funded by the Department of Agriculture of the regional government of Valencia, involves selectively breeding those animals with large domestic rabbits with a view to building up the breed for the general market.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Why is a cheap alternative to red meat necessary?
Why did this animal fizzle out on the farm and in the market place the first time around?
Why do the experts think it's going to work this time?
Did you know you could get rich quick raising Ostriches (Emus, Llamas, Alpacas) for fun and profit? Or the ever popular "Sea Monkeys"?
I don’t know why we have to try to grow huge rabbits when there are several perfectly fine large dog breeds already in great quantities...
IMO, they are pests and don't taste particularly good.
I want to see that killer rabbit that terrorized Jimmy Carter.
Some pheasant, grouse and rabbit, cooked up in the wood-fired oven in the family's cabin in Canaan, CT, many years ago...the memory does my heart good.
Surrounded by my comrades in arms after a weekend of hunting (no women), the Sunday night game dinner was an event I'll never forget.
Afterwards, the camp coffee and Jim Beam flowed freely as we played cards in the light of kerosene lanterns.
If I could relive any moment in my life, it would be that.
FMCDH(BITS)
Rabbits taste good.
Hmmmmmm...I think I'll keep the wine and have my own bunny for dinner tonight!
The only US Military mess hall in the world that regularly had rabbit on the menu was EOD school at Indianhead. Not all that bad, but most would prefer just about anything else. Not much of a wine list there either.... Someone on staff there had a relative that owned a rabbit farm....
Harvey?
Of course they do, but their tasting good doesn’t invalidate my original questions.
I’ve raised an eaten rabbits, ducks, geese, chicken, lamb, pork and beef. Duck, pork and beef are by far the best tasting in my opinion, lamb and chicken next up. Rabbit is almost as tasteless as turkey. Takes a skilled cook and a good herb garden to flavor it up.
This breed of rabbit was once common and widely sold. Why did the bottom drop out of the rabbit market? Why did it become a non-viable farm product then and why do the experts think it will be viable now. What has changed?
Or are they just throwing gov’t money around to justify their jobs, hmmm?
I’m not adverse to the idea, but a lot “experts” don’t know jack about earning a living producing food but they sure do like to tell those who are actually doing it, how it should be done. Just makes me laugh that giant bunnies are the “new, big thing” in agriculture.
You know what killed the rabbit market in the US. USDA requirements which put small producers at a distinct disadvantage with the increased costs of butchering caused by the scarcity and expense of having an onsite USDA meat inspector.
I’m disappointed. 33 posts in and no reference to “Tim the Enchanter” or “Big, Nasty, Pointy Teeth”.
“Again! Again!”
I absolutely remember eating rabbit a couple of times on the messdecks of my Navy destroyer in the 1980s. It tasted pretty good. More recently, I had rabbit at a nearby Brazilian steakhouse restaraunt a few years ago...
Actually, I rarely eat lamb or calves. Rabbits are much cuter than they taste.
Night of the Lupus? What’s that an episode of House, MD?
Okay, who’s got the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch?
I guess you don’t know as much Python trivia as you think. Look at the photo in my post #20.
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