EUGENE DALY continues his series on various aspects of Irish folklore and customs
The feast of St. Michael the Archangel falls on 29th September. In the old Irish tradition Michaelmas was known as Fómhar nGéanna – the goose harvest. By the end of September autumn is well advanced and we are facing into the darkness and drear of winter. On Cape Clear island they had a saying: Tar éis na Féile Mhichíl téann an púca san fharraige – after Michaelmas the pooka goes into the sea. In other words one cannot trust going to sea from then on.
Geese hatched out in the spring were put out to pasture. These were known as ‘green’ geese and were considered something of a delicacy. However, most geese were not killed until the grain was harvested and they were left to feed on the remaining grains. These were called ‘stubble’ geese. A large grey goose with a tuft of feathers on its head like a little hat was known as an ‘embling’ goose or ‘ruckety’ goose.
In the school folklore of Co. Longford, Michaelmas was remembered thus: “Only an odd one kept turkeys in my young days, but everyone kept geese. People took the ‘grass of a goose’ the same as they would the ‘grass of a cow’. There would be ten or twelve geese in every flock. The geese were put to grass in May same as cows, and they’d sell around Hollandtide, when they’d taken them off the grass.”
In parts of Ulster it was the custom to present the landlord with a couple of geese at Michaelmas. Michaelmas was the goose season and there was an old saying: “If you eat goose at Michaelmas you will never want all year round.”
In 1831 Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin, the Kilkenny school master and diarist, spent Michaelmas in Dublin alone but noted: “I had breakfast of beef and potatoes for four pence and I ate some Michaelmas goose.”
According to country recipes the secret of a succulent goose was in the long slow-cooking. In the traditional farmhouse kitchen the goose was cooked in a ‘dutch’ oven, a heavy iron pot with a lid. The pot was placed on the open hearth and the lid was covered with sods of turf, which were replaced from time to time. The traditional stuffing used was made with potatoes and onions.
Boiled goose provided good goose broth, though it was said that a ‘boiled goose was a spoiled goose’.
Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own