If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Although it is the last month of winter, it is not unusual for August to be the coldest month of the year on the Granite Belt. This year, 2008, is not proving to be the exception to the rule with morning temperatures dropping as low as -8°Celsius.
Due to the altitude the Granite Belt it is the coldest district in Queensland. Visitors come here hoping for starry night skies and frosty mornings when the ice will crunch under their feet. They are seldom disappointed.

This is great weather to dine in at Das Helwig Haus on a roast goose dinner. I breed a flock of geese each year and graze them free range on our farm so that when winter comes I can serve a true German style Christmas in July dinner. This is what I like to call “Self Sufficiency at Das Helwig Haus“.
It is sometimes hard for city people to comprehend how food arrives on the shelves of stores or on their restaurant plates, but the reality is that meat animals and birds are bred for the table.
So it is that I breed our own geese and now in August I have already have four mother geese each setting on about a dozen eggs. Ganders make very protective parents once the young are born, but mother geese don’t achieve a high score from a clutch of eggs. I always consider that a fifty percent survival rate is excellent.
Most people think that geese are as savage as watchdogs but I assure them that my geese are shy and will always walk away from people unless they are protecting their young babies.
I always ask our guests not to feed the geese anything like pieces of bread or they could get in the habit of following after people expecting a free hand out. That is why geese in public parks gain a bad reputation for chasing people and pecking them.

Our geese enjoy a great life as free range geese during the daylight hours. They roam all over our farm, grazing on the green grass and swimming on our dams.

Geese are a natural grazing bird, but appreciate a handful of cracked corn in the evenings. This is the lure I use to encourage them to return to their pens, where I feed them prior to closing the doors for the night. Due to the predators like foxes we have to ensure our geese are securely penned each night.

Technorati Tags: chrismast in july, coldest district in queensland, das helwig haus, flock of geese, four mother geese, german style christmas, roast goose dinner, the granite belt

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.