Michaelmas Goose

The tenant farmers and cottagers on large estates generally brought a present when they came to pay their rents on quarter-days. At the September quarter, geese were at their best. A “green goose” had grazed on pasture all summer and a “stubble goose” had been fattened additionally by grazing in the harvested wheat or barley fields.

Gervase Markham, in 1676, said that a green goose should have a sauce of sorrel and sugar mixed with a few scalded bilberries and should be served on st