Gobbling German geese

November is a tough time for geese in Germany. As in many other countries of continental Europe, the Feast of St Martin on 11 November was the cue for goose to appear on restaurant menus. Especially in Germany. Goose is one of those mythic chomps (like Eisbein) that go to the heart of German identity. Everyone dreams of walking out to some quaint hunting lodge in the forest, preferably just as the first flakes of winter snow are falling, to indulge in roast goose. At its best it comes stuffed with apple and marzipan and is served with dumplings, red cabbage and lashings of thick gravy.

The seasonal appearance of goose on the menu in many European countries is a nice reminder of an old calendrical tradition that still inflects modern life. The eleventh day of November, apart from being numerologically memorable (11/11 – called a Schnapszahl in German), comes at a turning point in the agrarian year: time to lay off the hired hands who worked right through the harvest and to batten down the hatches for the winter. In Catholic areas there are St Martin’s Day processions which have echoes of All Hallows and anticipate the dissembling and disguises of Carnival.

Martinmas traditions still find expression in many European countries, often through consumption. In parts of western Poland, a special St Martin’s croissant (called rogal swietomarcinski) is a fad for a week, while in Portugal St Martin's Day signals the start of the chestnut season. Elsewhere, the feast day is a reminder that the new season’s wine is fit to drink and that the figs are ripe to eat. But the geese are the most conspicuous victims of the annual Martinmas celebrations. For them, there will be no respite until after Christmas when goose disappears from German menus with a sudden finality. One can have too much of a good thing.

This is the first in a series of occasional posts by Susanne Kries and Nicky Gardner of hidden europe magazine (www.hiddeneurope.co.uk). For more on the issue of food and national identity see Nicky’s article ‘Europe is What it Eats’.