Tuesday 20 April 2010

It's Goose Egg Time

Yes, it is that time of year - the gloriously short season for Goose eggs. The geese began laying a few at a time, a few weeks ago, and the season consists of all the eggs that the geese lay, then walk away from. There will come a time very soon, when the last batch of eggs laid will be sat upon until goslings hatch, and the fate of these chicks will depend on the size of the flock. Christmas will see the end of many of them.

But for now, we have a narrow window of opportunity to eat the unfertile eggs which seem to be the run-up to the real thing. Remember when the first strawberries hit the shops when we were children, before they were air-freighted from other countries? That was the taste of summer. This is what I love about the 3 or 4 goose eggs that I eat every year, they are still seasonal, and I still get them from small-holders whose farms and birds I can see (and be attacked by - the belligerent, yellow-eyed bastards) a matter of yards from my workshop in the country. I bought four today, but gave one to a friend who had never tried them. They were £1 each - cheap. Waitrose tried to sell them in little individual boxes for £3.95 about a week ago (the thieving, yellow-eyed bastards).

I boil them for about twice as long as chicken eggs, and eat them straight from the shell, with a bit of celery salt - it's the best way I think. I've tried all the others.

Note the French wine - it's called Chat en Oeuf (geddit???), and the glass is the one I use every night - an engraved funnel, Georgian one from around 1790 - 1810. It is also hand engraved with the inscription, "B. Smithers, 1914" and a little laurel-leaf motif. I often wonder if B. Smithers survived WW1, as the glass had survived 100 years before he personalised it with a sharp diamond.

8 comments:

  1. Her Indoors and I have just eaten one each, with some nice, buttered toast. The butter was unsalted organic, made in Wales, and when I bought the eggs, I bought the BEST milk in the West Country from the same place - 'Ivy Farm' full cream from a Jersey herd near Frome.

    This is beginning to become a bit of a life-style post. The simple things of life-style?

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  2. It is very interesting to read about these other customs! I'm glad you two had a nice meal with the beautiful Goose eggs.

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  3. Perhaps some individually carved and especially sized stone egg-cups in which to serve them? The man across the road here has geese - it's the work of a moment to steal some eggs.

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  4. Thanks, Amy.

    It's the work of a moment, but it only takes a second for the bird to give you a good goosing, Mise - perk of the job? I ate my egg in a chicken-sized cup, much to her amusement. All it does is stop it from rolling over, after all!

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  5. My people had geese at their gaff in Shropshire. Some of them had strange 6ft long twisted feathers that trailed after them. The supplier of the original goslings said it was a throwback to some he'd had years before. The eggs were great, but I really wish I'd kept some of those feathers.

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  6. p.s. I always eat ordinary 'boiled' eggs with celery salt. Good to see someone else with the same idea.

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  7. Is the flavour the same as a chook egg Tom?

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  8. I've only just found this, Maiden. I would answer - if I knew what a chook is. Chicken? If so, it's a bit richer.

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