Pastured Goose

Here at Fat Chance Farm I raise a small number of free ranging Toulouse geese every year. Sometime in May, my adult breeding flock starts sitting on a clutch of eggs and then about a month later they hatch out their goslings. They are very protective parents!

For about a week, I keep the family mostly indoors so the goslings can get a good start with chick grain, then they allowed to free range for the whole summer.

Later in the fall, I start providing the geese supplemental grain, which helps them reach a good size for roasting. I process the geese around mid-November so they're available for the holidays.

Some important facts about goose if you're not familiar with them:

1. The flavor is most similar to duck and you can treat goose much the same as duck when roasting. The skin is fatty and the meat is more like red meat than chicken.

2. They will not be as perfectly plucked as a chicken. Not only do geese have waterproof feathers but they have a thick layer of down underneath. Also, I raise Toulouse geese, which are mostly gray, which means small missed down feathers stand out much more on the skin. 

The above photo is a good example of how it will look. Generally clean but with some fine down retained.