diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 47fd88392a..5d674bd0d3 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -187,6 +187,16 @@ To enable Google Anaytics, add the following lines to your Jekyll site:
 
 Google Analytics will only appear in production, i.e., `JEKYLL_ENV=production`
 
+--
+
+### Enabling Excerpts on the Home Page
+
+To display post-excerpts on the Home Page, simply add the following to your `_config.yml`:
+
+```yaml
+show_excerpts: true
+```
+
 ## Contributing
 
 Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/jekyll/minima. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the [Contributor Covenant](http://contributor-covenant.org) code of conduct.
diff --git a/_config.yml b/_config.yml
index 90255808b7..baf09ce8dd 100644
--- a/_config.yml
+++ b/_config.yml
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ description: > # this means to ignore newlines until "baseurl:"
   line in _config.yml. It will appear in your document head meta (for
   Google search results) and in your feed.xml site description.
 
+# social links
 twitter_username: jekyllrb
 github_username:  jekyll
 rss: rss
@@ -18,6 +19,8 @@ rss: rss
 #youtube_username: jekyll
 #googleplus_username: +jekyll
 
+show_excerpts: false # set to true to show excerpts on the homepage
+
 # Minima date format
 # refer to http://shopify.github.io/liquid/filters/date/ if you want to customize this
 minima:
diff --git a/_layouts/home.html b/_layouts/home.html
index 971bda9cb4..d68fe284a6 100644
--- a/_layouts/home.html
+++ b/_layouts/home.html
@@ -16,15 +16,17 @@ <h2 class="post-list-heading">{{ page.list_title | default: "Posts" }}</h2>
         <li>
           {% assign date_format = site.minima.date_format | default: "%b %-d, %Y" %}
           <span class="post-meta">{{ post.date | date: date_format }}</span>
-
           <h3>
             <a class="post-link" href="{{ post.url | relative_url }}">{{ post.title | escape }}</a>
           </h3>
+          {% if site.show_excerpts %}
+            {{ post.excerpt }}
+          {% endif %}
         </li>
       {% endfor %}
-    </ul>
-
-    <p class="rss-subscribe">subscribe <a href="{{ "/feed.xml" | relative_url }}">via RSS</a></p>
+  </ul>
+  
+  <p class="rss-subscribe">subscribe <a href="{{ "/feed.xml" | relative_url }}">via RSS</a></p>
   {% endif %}
 
 </div>