The Popularity of Christmas Geese in England

Originally posted by John Metzer on Fri, Dec 24, 2010 @ 02:08 PM

Most people in the US do not eat goose at Christmas. In England, however, fresh goose is a very popular Christmas treat. England has a population of 51 million and there are over forty farmers that commercially raise geese for Christmas sales. For the US to match that ratio, we would need over 240 goose farmers and I would wager there are fewer than 20 in the US that grow geese for the Christmas market!

Most of the geese in the UK are grown on pasture and sold as free range geese. After the first eight weeks, geese can be grown exclusively on green grass. Only at the end are they given all the grain they want. The two largest goose hatcheries in England are Norfolk Geese and Gulliver Poultry, though there are other, smaller hatcheries that supply day-old goslings, too. Though any goose can make a Christmas goose, it is normally the Embden breed that is used due to its large size and white feathers.

The UK has a British Goose Producers Association. This organization provides information to growers, promotional material for better marketing, an annual farm tour of a goose producer and helps coordinate sales among members. Their website has a wealth of information on the tradition of goose at Christmas, a list of members selling Christmas geese, and nutritional information on goose meat and fat. The US has no comparable goose association.

If you have an interest in growing geese for the local market, I encourage you to visit some of the websites of members of the British Goose Producers. See how they grow and market their birds to individuals, butcher shops, restaurants and grocery stores in the UK. It is a market that is just in its infancy in the US.

There are many recipes for goose. The common ingredient in all the recipes, however, is that the skin is pricked to allow the excess fat to drain out. Ducks and geese are genetically predisposed to have more fat under their skin than chickens and turkeys. The reason for this is they spend quite a bit of time in cold water and the advantages of fat are that 1) fat is a great insulator and 2) as it is lighter than meat and bone, it allows the bird to float easier in the water. But during cooking, with some slight pokes of the fork in the breast skin, the excess fat will drain out.  But you want to save that fat!

Goose fat is a real delicacy in many cultures. There is even a UK website exclusively on the history, nutritional benefits and use of goose fat . Goose fat has a high burning (or smoke) point which means foods can be cooked at a high temperature without the fat burning or breaking down. It also has a lower proportion of saturated fatty acids compared to other animal fats such as butter and lard. The biggest selling point however is the unsurpassed taste of foods cooked using goose fat.  It has traditionally been prized in Europe for frying and roasting vegetables.

We have a page on our website that has a list of our customers throughout North America that sell fresh duck eggs locally. We would like to do the same for those of you that sell fresh goose at Christmas. If you do sell fresh duck or goose, please send us your name, city, state, what you sell, and contact information (phone number and/or email) and we will include you on our Christmas Duck and Goose Page. Send a picture, too! If your birds end up in certain stores or restaurants, send their name, too. There is no charge, it is just a service to our customers to spread the word about their ducks and geese!

Now it may be too late for you to rush out and get a Christmas goose in time for the 25th – but there is another holiday in a week that can be your excuse for a delicious goose dinner!

Everyone at Metzer Farms wishes you a heartwarming Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

How Do Our Ducklings and Goslings Actually Get To You?

Originally posted by John Metzer on Fri, Dec 03, 2010 @ 12:06 PM 

The logistics involved in getting our ducklings and goslings to you are fascinating.  But first I want to give you a little history.

Until about twelve years ago the United States Postal Service (USPS) had its own planes and flew much of the mail throughout the United States.  This was their Eagle Service system.  But then the USPS decided they could do it cheaper by tendering all of the mail to commercial airlines (Delta, United, Northwest, Continental, etc.), so they got rid of all their planes.  This worked fine for most mail but not for day-old birds.  There are two problems with live, day-old birds: 1) the carriers are paid by weight and a box full of letters weighs more than a box full of chicks or ducklings and 2) they have to make sure the temperature and ventilation in the hold is sufficient for live birds.  Though it was in their contract to do so, some airlines stopped carrying live birds because of these problems and shipping became a problem nationwide.

At this point the Bird Shippers of America was formed by mail order hatcheries and associated companies and customers.  A lobbyist was hired and we made some headway.  But the situation continued to deteriorate.  It was so bad in the spring of 2005 that it changed from week to week on where we could mail our birds.  We could take orders but we never knew if we could mail there on hatch day.  Luckily in the fall of 2006 FedEx signed a contract with the USPS to haul day-old poultry on their planes.  FedEx took this very seriously and I was soon visited by three national FedEx managers to better understand the hatchery business and ensure the system they set up would work.  Since that time, shipping has been very consistent and relatively trouble free.

But back to my story.  Where do the ducklings and goslings go when they leave our hatchery?  We mail them in the local town of Chualar, population 600, Monday afternoons.  My father started mailing ducklings there on the way to work 40 years ago and we have continued ever since.  USPS trucks pick up the shipments there and take them to Salinas, a nearby distribution center and then on to San Jose.  Some are flown from San Jose but most go to San Francisco or Oakland airports.  They are transferred to FedEx late Monday evening. 

FedEx has a Day Turn and a Night Turn.  Day Turn are those birds going by Priority mail.  They leave early in the morning and are sent to one of two FedEx sorting centers for live poultry: Oakland by truck or Memphis by plane.  At this hub they are sorted and transferred to the plane going to your nearest, major airport and usually arrive by late afternoon Tuesday.
Night Turn are for Express Mail packages.  They travel at night and arrive at the destination airport the next morning.  The only way we can ensure Express Mail packages travel on Monday's Night Turn is by delivering them to the San Francisco airport Monday afternoon.  But even by our doing this, there is no guarantee they will arrive the next day to your Post Office.

Once they arrive at the destination airport, FedEx transfers the birds back to the USPS.  Sometimes the USPS distributes from the airport post office and other times they are transferred to a regional distribution center.  That evening and early the next morning the USPS has trucks taking the mail to all the individual post offices in the area.  Most arrive at your local post office between 4:00am and 8:00 Wednesday morning.  Some larger post offices have a second delivery later in the day.

 You can always drop by your local post office to learn their procedure but 99% of the time they will phone you early that morning to ask you to come get your birds.  It is better for you to go pick them up so your birds get water and food as soon as possible – and don't travel with your mailperson all day before they deliver your mail.  Make sure you give the hatchery the most appropriate phone number for you to be contacted in the morning.
FedEx carries most of our birds but some of the other major airlines, including Continental, Northwest (now Delta) and American, also carry day-old poultry for the USPS.  It is an excellent system that works very well the vast majority of the time and is envied by hatcheries and their customers in Canada and most of the European countries.

Testimony to US Postal Commission on Mailing Day Old Poultry

Originally posted by John Metzer on Sat, May 29, 2010 @ 09:24 AM

This week I spoke in front of the US Postal Regulatory Commission.  As you may have heard, they are conducting hearings throughout the United States to discuss the consequences of a Saturday closure.  One of their stops was in Sacramento, California.

I made several points with them:

1) The mail order hatchery industry is completely dependent on the US Postal Service to deliver our birds throughout the nation.  No one else will deliver day old poultry.

2) I felt their service is excellent as very few orders do not arrive on time and death losses are extremely minimal.

3) Much of the credit goes to their contract with the FedEx, which carries the majority of the birds for the USPS from airport to airport throughout the nation.

4) The hatchery industry can handle nondelivery on Saturday but it is paramount that they not close midweek and keep Saturday open as it takes three continuous days to ship day old poultry successfully: the ship day, the travel day and the delivery day.

5) The mail order hatchery industry is growing – probably one of the few industries that is growing in postage purchases.

My assumption was that they were only considering a Saturday delivery but Commissioner Acton said they had considered closing Wednesday.  However, their polls indicated that the vast majority of customers preferred a Saturday closure and that is the only day they are now seriously considering.

In my research for the presentation I did learn that the US Post Office shipped 1.8 million pounds of day old poultry from May 13, 2009 through May 12, 2010.  If you add in the adult birds that are mailed, my guess is the total postage paid by the mail order hatcheries is easily over $10,000,000 a year.

For more details on how we mail your birds through the USPS, please visit our website at http://www.metzerfarms.com/ShippingOptions

For more information on the consequences of Saturday closures for you, go to

http://www.usps.com/communications/five-daydelivery/