Who needs a turkey?

Britain is rediscovering the traditional joys of eating goose, says Julian Rollins

It's close to show time at Coedwynog Farm in Pembrokeshire and Michael Carey is suffering from something approaching stage fright. "I'd be lying if I told you it was my favourite time of year," he says. "If I could, I'd just disappear and come back on Christmas Day."

But the show must go on. Between now and Christmas, it's all hands to the pumps at the farm at Nevern, as 3,000 geese are prepared for ovens around the country.

Roast goose is the lost prince of the British table. Once it was the bird of choice for Christmas Day, but that position was lost long ago to turkey, the pretender from over the water. But over the last decade the bird has been making a slow but steady comeback. This Christmas, one goose will be sold for every 20 turkeys.

Farmer Carey is biased, but he has little time for turkey, and judging by the farm's many repeat customers there are plenty of people who agree with him. "Goose is such a full, rich meat and the skin crisps up beautifully. It's almost worth cooking for that alone," he says.

Another attraction is that goose is one of Britain's last truly seasonal foods. Traditionally it was eaten only between Michaelmas and Christmas, because you could not buy it at any other time of year. Geese lay eggs in spring and the young birds grow strong on summer grass. In days gone by they went on to stubble fields at harvest time to fatten on dropped grain. So far, nobody has done much to change that year-to-year rhythm.

Our rediscovery of the bird also reconnects us with a rich seam of tradition. Our ancestors slept in and under goose-feather bedding, wrote with goose quills and shot arrows with goose-feather flights.

Christmas at Coedwynog starts in early summer, when the newly-hatched goslings arrive. They quickly grow bigger and stronger, and once their feathers have developed the natural oil coating that makes them waterproof they get free range of the fenced paddocks. There they graze in big, "chatty" groups throughout the summer.

Just a mile or so from the coast, the farm takes its chances on a westerly that blows in from Ireland. Carey says: "We catch a lot of rain here and the geese seem to like it best when it's wet.".............

Telegraph Weekend December 2, 2006