A key component of Lynette’s mantra is barter-ability. In this video, we will show you a barter between us and a member of our community, where we exchanged extra plants for three rabbits.
We were able to barter plants for these three Rex rabbits, two females, and one male. These rabbits will be the start of our rabbit breeding program and could be used for meat if necessary.
The plants we bartered were leftovers from our plant sale, as well as aquatic plants using plants from our plant sale was an ideal way to get rid of extra plants that we did not need for our own gardens. The woman we bartered with was looking for both vegetable plants, as well as aquatic plants like this duckweed and penny ward.
We had ample extra plants that were already labeled with plant sale prices, which made an even exchange of value. Easy. These three rabbits were valued at $150. In this barter, it was very important to us that we created an even exchange of goods in preparation for this, it was important to set up a connection and have a pre-established value and knowledge of what each party had to offer. We wanted to make sure that we had enough plants that she was interested in, so we could make the barter worth her time and effort.
We have been wanting rabbits on the farm for a while, and this provided a great opportunity to get quality rabbits and meet a member of our community. Since she breeds rabbits, as part of her home setting operation, we knew that they came from a good source and an individual that was invested in their care and health. Having this opportunity to barter with her. Also let us ask her questions about the rabbits and their care to make sure we had all the answers we needed. We bartered plants like maringa trees, herbs, tomatoes, and pepper plants, as well as squash, cucumbers, and aquatic plants like water, lettuce, penny,wort, and duckweed, which we have ample of and grow back very quickly.
We connected with her through a Facebook rabbit group, and we were able to see that she was also looking for transplants on one of the gardening groups. We reached out to her and she said that she was willing to discuss a barter. We showed her pictures beforehand of all the plants we had to offer, and she gave us descriptions and pictures of the rabbits she had available. This is by far the largest value barter we have been part of so far, we have done some smaller plant trades for other plants or seeds in the past, as well as traded produce for some fish for our pond. But this rabbit barter is by far the most involved one yet.
Bartering in your community is a great way to meet new people, exchange knowledge, and expand your wealth in a different way. We hope that this video inspires you to seek out opportunities that you can use bartering in the future. This exchange definitely inspired us to seek out more chances to barter and sustainably eliminate things that we have in abundance at our urban farm.
