Michaelmas Goose

Roast goose as a centrepiece of the Michaelmas feast, often with roast fruit. The 'Green Goose' or 'Stubble Goose' fed on stubble and grass unlike the Christmas goose which is finished on corn.


The Michelmas Goose
Image: Unknown



Michaelmas, 'Michael's Mass', September the 29th, is a 'Quarter Day' marking one of the turns of the seasons, the beginning of one of the four Law Terms and the church festival of St. Michael and all Angels. It was the end of harvest, when debts and rents were paid and farms changed tenants.

There is a legend that Queen Elizabeth, having dined on goose the day she received tidings of the dispersion of the Spanish Armada, ordered the goose to make its appearance every Michaelmas.