Griselda and Teague, my American Buff Geese, have set up housekeeping in their stall in the barn, and Griselda has begun laying eggs. And what eggs they are! Simply beautiful. I've had these geese going on 4 years now, and I'm still not tired of seeing their eggs every spring (well, almost spring, anyway). Once egg-laying begins, I usually leave a few marked eggs in the nest to encourage continued laying, but will check daily for fresh eggs for my own use. Then in mid to late March, I'll allow a clutch of about a dozen eggs to collect in the nest, which will usually prompt her to start sitting on them. Once she's sitting, the eggs will take 31 days to hatch. If all goes well, goslings will be here sometime around the first of May.
For those of you unfamiliar with geese, here's some trivia...
Geese generally mate for life and can live 20+ years.
They are very family oriented and form strong bonds.
Seasonal breeders and layers, they will usually mate, nest, and lay eggs from February through late spring or early summer, generally laying between 20-30 eggs per season.
A typical large chicken egg weighs in at 2 ounces. A goose egg is about 7 ounces.
Since goose eggs are much higher in protein than chicken eggs, they are great for baking.
My all time favorite goose egg recipe is egg custard. With the higher fat and protein content, what is usually considered a delicate recipe is a breeze. Here it is...
Baked Goose Egg Custard
2 goose eggs
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups milk, scalded and cooled to room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
nutmeg
- preheat oven to 325°
- beat eggs slightly
- whisk in sugar and vanilla
- add milk slowly while whisking
- pour into a lightly greased casserole
- sprinkle with nutmeg
- set in larger pan with 1" hot water
- bake 50 minutes or until firm to the touch and golden
Enjoy!
6 comments:
Well, you're going to have to distribute "goose egg custard kits," complete with goose eggs, for those of us without access!
Thank you for the recipe. I am certain to have lots of extra goose eggs this year! Have you ever done any goose eggeury? Or incorporated them into your art somehow?
What a beautiful egg! The custard sounds so delicious, I can almost taste it.
Thanks for the encouragement on my soon to be adventure of gardening in the desert. I really need to bolster my mind and spirit for this one! :)
Hi Kathleen - Enjoyed reading your blog - especially the picture of your wether and his goose girlfriend. I'm going to try your date pinwheels - they remind me of a cookie my grandma used to make. T.
Very interesting. We have had a goose for years that lives with our pigs. She lays - in fact for the first year we thought she was a gander as that was what we were told by the person who gave her to us. Imagine our surprise when the gander laid eggs! Thus the name change from gander to goose-goose.
This year we have five geese, more donations from a friend, and have both male and female - we're pretty sure! - so we hope to have goslings too this summer.
We just got the first goose egg of the year so we're a bit late but things start late here. Winter has a tenacious grip. There is still snow in the fields but almost gone.
Thank you for the custard recipe. A 91 year old woman has goose eggs and gives us some--which we enjoy for breakfast--love the yokes, and the white is just fine to our taste. Anyway, the lady wanted me to make a goose egg custard, and I have never made custard in my life. I made her some tapioca pudding instead, but with your nice recipe I can now give her the custard she asked for. Thanks again. Glad there are nice people like you left in this world.
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