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Moose Manor Farms

The Christmas Goose

12/28/2012

8 Comments

 
Roasted Goose
This year we hosted a Christmas Eve dinner with some close friends to round out the holiday table.  I decided that it was the perfect time to prepare my very first goose.  ever.

Not to fear though... this goose was soooo amazing!!  It was like the very best beef filet wrapped in the juiciest bacon you've ever had.  The meat was a wonderful, flavorful medium-rare and the skin was crispy with just the right amount of fat remaining to make it better than any other crispy animal fat I've ever enjoyed. If you've never had goose, you're really missing out.  Here's the story of how we got that awesome beast on the table:

We start with a hunt for recipes of roasted goose perfection.  There are two places that I go for absolute authoritative advice for cooking when it really counts: Christopher Kimball of America's Test Kitchen (or Cooks Illustrated/Cooks Country) and Hank Shaw of Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook fame.  Hank will give me the in's and out's of wild food deliciousness (especially waterfowl), and Kimball will tell me exactly why it works (after testing a recipe 10 ways from Sunday).  I also consulted FoodNetwork UK since Roasted Goose is still a traditional British Christmas meal.

The first thing I discovered is that you're a complete knucklehead if you cook your goose (or duck) _beyond medium rare.  Ducks and geese are red meat birds – meaning the breasts of both need to be served pink.  I say it all the time: ducks are not chickens; so it follows that goose is not turkey.

OK... now we have more advice than we can shake a stick at and an almost 13lb free-range, all natural goose to cook for 6 people.  I took everyone's expert recommendations to heart and created my own recipe (I know you saw it coming).  The highlights I gleaned from the recipes were as follows:

FoodNetwork UK said to brine the goose for at least 24 hours.  I went with a basic brine (1 part sea salt, 1 part brown sugar).  And also followed their advice to the letter about stuffing the bird with fruit before roasting.

Kimball said that I should air-dry the goose in the refrigerator for 24 hours in order to tighten the skin so that during roasting the fat will be squeezed out. I neglected to do the boiling water dip first but I had totally intended to - I just got disorganized in the hubbub of preparing dinner.

Hank said, in his guest post at Simply Recipes, that I would better represent the Lord of the Marsh with a medium-rare breast and well roasted legs and wings. So he advises roasting the goose for a bit, then slicing off the whole breast to finish searing it in a pan once the legs are done. That way I'll still have a nice roasted flavor on the whole goose, crispy skin, and properly pink breast meat.  He also has a superb photo tour for prepping the goose that I found very helpful.

We didn't take lot of pictures because we were pretty busy bustling about getting everything ready for dinner but here's the one good picture we did manage to grab:


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Poultry Processing Workshop Survey

9/23/2012

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I'm trying to gauge the level of interest in hosting a poultry processing workshop here at the farm; I've had success with 'Chicken Raising 101' workshops here.  So if you have any desire to learn how to process your own poultry on a small scale (50 birds at a time or less), please take this short survey.  If there're enough folks who want to learn, I'll start hosting chicken harvesting workshops in December 2012 or Spring 2013.  Whether I hold classes for other types of poultry will depending on the survey results (and, of course, prices will vary with the type of birds we process).

Take the survey here:
www.surveymonkey.com/s/XC5DFC2/

The basic idea is this:

I figure a class size of between 4-7 people at $25 per person is reasonable. A small group allows everyone to see what's going on and I can do hands-on for that number by myself.

1. I give an overview of what we plan to accomplish and use a couple of diagrams to show students how we plan to do it.

2. I process one bird from beginning to end so students can see how the entire operation moves from one step to another fluidly.

3. Then the students get their birds and I walk everyone through the steps again while they do the processing themselves.

4. Once all the birds are harvested and packaged we have lunch which includes the bird I processed in the beginning of the class (I'll have a trusty assistant cooking that up while we're doing the hands-on part).

5. Then the students collect the bird they processed and take it home.


If that sounds interesting, take the survey and let me know!


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When You Can't Eat it All you Can

10/26/2011

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Yeah, I march to the beat of my own drum.  {shrug} meh… it makes me interesting (or weird depending on your perspective). 

As odd as it sounds to folks who buy all their veggies at the supermarket, there was a time in my life when I did a lot of canning.  I had more time in my time then… I actually did a lot of sewing and crafting and other dorkey stuff, like square dancing.  Hmmmmm… where did all my “free” time get off to? I guess the ducks ate it.

Most folks do their canning in the oppressive heat of August because that's when the biggest portion of the fruit is ripe.  It’s a cruel trick of timing to be trapped in an already steamy kitchen with 10 boiling pots on the stove and a pressure canner hissing loudly for hours on end.  This is why I would like to build a “summer kitchen” outside where I can do the everyday grilling as well as the canning.  No sense in heating up the house that you pay good money to cool, right?

So, the reason I wasn’t canning with the rest of the country is that, while I had a million blossoms in the garden, I was terribly short on pollinators this year.  That's why there's no tomato sauce or pickled peppers or salsa or green beans put up at my house for winter {sigh}.  I had just about enough to cover some of my own meals but not all the extra I had planned and planted for.  There's always next year... guess I may need to look into raising my own bees since Monsanto is doing a bang-up job of killing all the others.

Farmer Jackie
Farmer Jackie, Mooseherder
However, I do have other things that need to be put up for the winter.  My friend, George gave me a large grocery bag full of apples from his tree, which were preserved this weekend. And next month I plan to put as many chickens into Mason jars as possible so that making dinner doesn't require 24 hours of thawing a whole bird.  Some days I just can’t spare the brain bandwidth to plan more than 5 minutes in advance.  I would like  an order of convienent chicken triple grande, organic half-skinny, no-foam, low salt, without the preservatives please.

To that end, this weekend Farmer Jackie and I dusted off the old canning equipment and pulled out my boxes of jars, lids, and rings.  It was a good test run before the serious work began.  She also made 3 big pots of soups for us to freeze so that we could have healthy, hearty (and thrifty) lunches for the next couple of weeks.  MMMMMMM… made from scratch lentil, split pea, and yellow pea soups.  Yummo! 

So once the dried legumes were re-hydraded, the various soups were set on the stove to do their thing...

Lentil Soup
We got to work on cutting up George's awesome cow pasture apples
(yeah, everyone says to peel them, but I'm a peels-on kind of gal)
Local Organic Apples
Then we got the jars all sterilized and lined up to be filled
Mason jars ready for fillin'
Lids and rings also got some super hot sanitizing action
Canning Rings
Filled up and ready for a hot water bath
Apples for the winter... pie anyone?
All Done!  2 dozen+  pints of apples are yummy for my tummy...
2 dozen jars of yummy apples
Stored away in the basement pantry just askin' to be turned into apple dumplings...
Apple dumplins in the future...
Let's not forget the mucho yummo soups we (read: Jackie) made for weekday lunches...
lunch!!
Man!  We're good... LOL!
.
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Then there was that one time that I ordered 50 broiler chickens...

10/3/2011

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Yep, 50.  As my good friend, Kent would say, I now have half-a-hundred of these tiny yellow chicks in the brooder already eating me out of house and home.

Meyer hatchery was running a sale but I had to place a minimum 50 chick order to get the deal.  I called a local farmer friend who raises these same jumbo Cornish cross for meat, usually right about the same time I do in the spring and fall.  She never called me back (it's a busy time for farmers right now).  The longer I wait to place my order, the further I push my harvest out so I wanted to get them growing asap.

I figured I'd just place the order and if she decided that she wanted them they would already be on their way.  And if she didn't, I'd just sell them on craigslist; wouldn't be hard at all this time of year.

Then they arrived and I started to feel all greedy about them.  I wanted to have them all in MY freezer.  I was feeding more people this year, wasn’t I?  I need to make certain my larder was full, right?  Yeeesss,  you really never know when the lean times are upon you until they’re looming down… and quality organic meat is really expensive.  So I decided to keep them  All.  For.  Myself. 

Yes, all 50.

This is where you might be scratching your head... "how will you harvest 50 chickens with your little operation?"  Well, I figure 25 one weekend and 25 another.  I'll sell the usual amount to offset my cost and put the rest in my own freezer.  Then you so sweetly remind me, "but you haven't finished your duck harvest that the hurricane brought to an early conclusion..."  YesYesYes... I KNOW that.  I'll do it.  I'll do it soon. 

OK… ummmmm... next year I'm only doing the Spring and Fall harvests.  Three is clearly too many for me to handle {she says woefully while holding her head in her hands}.

So sometime in the next 6-8 weeks I need to finish my waterfowl harvest of Cayuga and Muscovy (those Muscovy drakes are on my last nerve and on the short list for the first to go), then 2 more weekends dedicated to sending the jumbo Cornish cross to freezer camp.   We WILL be eating healthy, protein filled meals this winter. 

Now I just need to get the winter veggie garden planted...

You know... sometimes I wish I could get rollover minutes to add to the days I really need to cram more time into my time.

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Unlike this poor womans family, my minutes would never get old enough for me to consider ever throwing them away.... those minutes are still good, man!

Yeah, OK.  So the hurricane… my power was out for several days and all the eggs I had in the incubator were officially a no-go.  Luckily, I was gearing down for the season and only had about 30 set at the time.  And in retrospect, I really don’t need any more chickens.  But I was looking forward to a few more Welsh Harlequin girls for next season. 
.
Day-old Welsh Harlequin Duckling
So I decided that while I had my Welsh Harlequin pair in the garden alone I would put all of Miss Blush's eggs in the incubator to see if I could get a few more girls to add to my flock for next season.  I set every one of the eggs she laid, waiting until I'd gathered about a weeks worth each time. That should give me a week for slow hatching babies before I open the hatcher to put in another set.  I don't expect high fertility on these eggs since it was really late in the season, but I'm likely to get a handful of ducklings from this hatch, which should net me at least 2 or 3 girls to add to Duck Dogers harem.

The first of those eggs came due last week and this little cutie hatched out from the 4 eggs I set on August 31 - looks like a pretty silver phase girl (the black head = silver phase & pink bill = girl). Luckily, the night after this lone duckling was born my 50 Cornish cross arrived and I just popped this little one in with her new bunk mates.  Everyone is getting along perfectly.

I have another set of Welsh Harlequin due to hatch this week so I'm looking forward to a few more fuzzy butts to add to the giant, fluffy yellow brooder bunch soon.

**Update: 2 more WH ducklings hatched on Oct 16!  And based on the dark brown color of their bills, It looks like I have two boys.  One appears to be a silver phase and the other probably gold phase.  I've also determined that Miss Blush's eggs consistently hatch 3 days early... LOL!**

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    Dana

    About Farmrgirl

    Small town Calif. farm-girl leaves the ranch behind for many years of adventure at sea, travels the world, then moves to Washington DC in 2007 where she finds the perfect homestead to settle down: acres of secluded Southern Maryland woods where she goes granola by raising her quality of life, Mastiffs, ducks, chickens, and tomatoes {& one Bengal kitty}... sustainably.


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