By the summer of 2008, our daughter Julia was ready to add to her repertoire and get some rabbits to keep at the farm. Knowing we wanted a rabbit for both fur and meat, we soon settled on the rare Silver Fox rabbit, listed as "critical" with the American Livestock Breed Conservancy. We added one doeling, Jewel, and a buck named Zeus to our menagerie.

The Silver Fox represents the third unique breed of rabbit developed in America, out of Ohio, and was first recognized as a breed in 1925. They have outstanding meat quality, and their fur is beautiful with its silver flecking. Silver Fox can be both blue and black, and our our buck Zeus carries the blue gene. We hope to have our first litters starting in Spring of 2009.

Listed on Slow Food's Ark of Taste list, the Silver Fox is known for a deep loin, good meat-to-carcass ratio, and a fine taste and texture. It is a heavy breed with the bucks weighing around 11 pounds and does reaching up to 12 pounds as adults. They dress out around 65% of live weight.

We plan to sell both breeding stock and meat rabbits, so check back in the Spring for more details.