Farming Friends

An article written by James Gulliver of Gullliver Geese on the Growth of the UK market for Fresh Goose. Gulliver Geese are the largest producer of day old goslings in the UK and have goslings for sale from April through to August.

The Goose Market is Getting Fat

Historically Goose was eaten on special occasions such as Christmas and Michaelmas. The celebration of Michaelmas is seldom recognised and Christmas Goose has been sidelined by the American import, the turkey.

But goose is making a come back….

As Goose producers and members of the BGPA, the British Goose producing Association, Gulliver Geese are well placed to comment on the popularity of fresh goose at christmas. “We have seen a steady increase over the last ten years in the demand for day old goslings” says Martin Gulliver of Gulliver Geese “this increase is reflected in a recent report published by Defra.”

The increased demand is being driven by people becoming more food aware with food becoming a pastime as opposed to a necessity where quick preparation and ease of cooking is paramount. The evolution of the Celebrity Chef has helped to put goose back on the table due to its unique taste.

Goose related products are also becoming more popular, Goose fat is now firmly believed to be the best fat to roast your potatoes in. Sales of goose fat in 2007 outstripped supply leaving goose producers with a totally new problem,Not enough fat!

Michaelmas Goose is also making a come back with some restaurants pushing the Michaelmas or “Goose Day” very hard.

Michaelmas coincides with the autumn equinox, historically, the day of the year on which the serfs of the manor elected a reeve. The reeve was expected to ensure all other serfs started work on time and that no one was cheating the lord of the manor out of any money. This day was also recognised as the beginning of the farming year , the time for rents and debts to be paid to the lord of the manor. Many landlords would hold a goose feast for all tenants to supposedly protect against financial hardships.

Michaelmas is still celebrated in many European countries and Michaelmas goose is starting to gain popularity within the United Kingdom. Michaelmas goose is also known as the ‘green goose’ as they have been fed on stubble and grass as opposed to the Christmas goose which is finished on corn. Many restaurants and butchers have started to promote Michaelmas goose reviving old recipes and folklore surrounding Michaelmas

Look out at your local butchers and restaurants for Goose and give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.

The Goose Market Is Getting Fat By James Gulliver from Gulliver Geese.

If you have a farming story, memory or farm visit that you would like to share or a farming issue that you would like to raise, then please send me your story or article and I will happily include it on a guest appearance post.

I planted some red onion sets a few weeks ago and the shoots have just started to appear.

The TopVeg website was able to provide me with excellent onion planting information. 

Farming Friends & TopVeg have now collaborated to create a How To Grow Onions growing card.

Click on the image to enlarge and if you wish to print off this growing card, right click on the enlarged image and then click print picture to print out a copy.If you would like this document as a pdf, just contact farmingfriends and I will email you the document. 

I intend to print off copies and then laminate the sheet so that I can use the growing card in the future.

Teachers, children, vegetable growers and anyone interested in growing onions are welcome to print off this growing card for their own use.

Other growing cards we have already created;

• How To Grow Garlic.
• How To Grow Lettuce.
• How To Grow Summer Radish.
• How To Grow Beetroot.
• How To Grow Broad Beans.
• How To Grow Parsley.
• How To Grow Sage.
• How To Grow Tomatoes.

If you have any other growing cards that you would like Farming Friends & TopVeg to create then please leave a comment and we will be happy to create it for you.

I put 38 duck eggs in the incubator on Sunday. I got a dozen khaki campbell duck eggs from ebay. Half a dozen Aylesbury and khaki campbell duck eggs in an exchange for guinea fowl eggs from iaf on the river cottage forum and 24 khaki campbell duck eggs from the rare breed sale in York. If you do your calculations then you are right to think that not all the eggs have gone into the incubator, this is because some of the eggs were broken or cracked, so I put 38 eggs into the incubator. The duck eggs take 28 days to hatch so I’ll let you know how the eggs get on.

Tulips are a lovely flower and I only have a few varieties in my garden. Last year I bought a colourful tulip for the garden and it has brightened up my garden with the multiple flower heads of colour throughout March and April.

Join

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As The Garden Grows for more information.

Do you have a favourite variety of tulip?

Click on the image below to visit Amazon.co.uk to find out more about this book or visit one of the Farming Friends Bookshops.

A hen is egg bound when they cannot lay their egg. This maybe because;

• the oviduct is too small for the egg to pass through,
• the egg may have broken and cannot slip through or
• the shell of the egg is too soft to let the egg pass through.

Young pullets sometimes find it difficult to lay the first few eggs and it is not unusual to find that the first few eggs that they lay are elongated in shape or speckled with blood.

Sometimes it is obvious that a hen is egg bound as they will be straining.

Egg binding can be relieved by gently massaging the egg out. If the egg breaks inside the hen then there maybe a risk of infection so the hens vent will need to be bathed.

Click on the image below to visit Amazon.co.uk to find out more about this book or visit one of the Farming Friends Bookshops.

Are guinea fowl eggs a speciality egg or just a small egg? I have been pondering this thought recently as I have decided to sell some guinea fowl eggs for eating at the farm gate. As I made the decision to sell my eggs, the next question to answer was how much to charge?

I did the usual search on the internet and checked all the major supermarkets to see if they were selling guinea fowl eggs but couldn’t find any. After a discussion with my husband I decided to sell 6 fresh, free range guinea fowl eggs for £1. With this price chalked up on the chalk board at the farm gate, I had decided to market my guinea fowl eggs as a speciality, free range egg. I think that guinea fowl are a speciality breed as they are not widely found in the UK. My guinea fowl free range daily and I have noticed that the yolk is a rich yellowy orange colour with a superior taste to other eggs purchased from the supermarket.

A family member however, pointed out that the guinea fowl eggs are small and that they need to use 3 guinea fowl eggs for every two ordinary hen eggs and that the price of hen eggs is cheaper, so buying my guinea fowl eggs would not be cost effective for them.

I can see both sides to this debate. What are your thoughts on guinea fowl eggs? Do you think that they are a speciality egg and therefore worth paying more for or are they just a smaller egg and therefore more are needed for baking and eating and therefore should not cost as much as the free range hen egg? Let me know your thoughts.

Click on the image below to visit Amazon.co.uk to find out more about this book or visit one of the Farming Friends Bookshops.

It was four years ago to this date that I found Snowy the cat in the heifer barn with four kittens. My friend Izzy took two of the kittens and we kept two, who became Tigger and Fluffy (two beautiful white and ginger tom cats). Tigger used to follow me everywhere Fluffy followed Tigger but unfortunately Tigger became ill in October and passed away. For a time I thought that I might lose Fluffy as well as he really pined for Tigger. I missed Tigger too so I knew how Fluffy felt.

Fluffy was a cat that used to keep his distance when Tigger was alive but over the last four years, I have spent lots of time chatting to Fluffy and carefully petting him. In time Fluffy has changed and become a very friendly cat who I love dearly.

Happy Birthday Fluffy!