We’ve all probably thought more about park geese over the past few weeks than we have over our entire lives.
If you’re new to the story, here’s a quick recap: In recent weeks, local and federal officials captured and slaughtered 1,662 Canada geese hanging out at four Denver parks. The goal was to shrink the goose population and then use the meat to feed the hungry. Government officials probably thought their plan was a win-win. Some others? Not so much.
Sure, we could debate this controversial program some more — and I’m pretty positive we’ll continue to do so — but among all the questions that #GooseGate has inspired, one stands out.
What does Denver park goose taste like?
The answer, I learned, is like ground beef crossed with dark-meat turkey. It’s not at all gamey or fatty or reminiscent of whatever geese eat in Denver parks. It was good. And in its ground form, I would have sworn it was regular old hamburger with a nice, firm crumble.
I tried the goose at Metro Caring, an anti-hunger organization that received the slaughtered, ground goose meat to distribute to its patrons. The non-profit operates a no-cost supermarket at its headquarters on 18th Avenue and Downing Street, where 100 families a day come in for groceries like fresh produce, meat and eggs. As of this past Monday, USDA-processed and inspected ground park goose was just another butcher-wrapped protein that patrons could grab from the market’s meat counter.
“We’re distributing it like we would any other source of protein here,” said Tommy Crosby, food access team lead.
To entice its patrons to take a chance on the goose, a Metro Caring volunteer cooked up some of the ground meat Friday morning and offered samples to shoppers. Nutritionist and food educator Rob Russell made park goose breakfast casserole, cottage pie, chili and bobotie, a South African curry casserole topped with egg custard.
“This is a unique opportunity, actually,” Russell said. “I’ve only cooked goose on special occasions … Wild geese have a different flavor altogether. Wild geese are gamey and have more fat. Park geese are leaner.”
I’d never tasted goose, so I can’t really tell you how City Park geese fattened up on discarded Skittles and torn Wonder bread compare to wild, non-park geese, but I’ve heard that the non-Wonder bread kind can be tough and gamey. That wasn’t at all the case for the goose dishes I sampled, but then again, my favorite (the bobotie) was ground up and flavored with curry and garlic, so how bad could it be?
I also tried the breakfast casserole and chili — and if you told me there was ground beef in there, I would have believed you.
Metro Caring patrons weren’t exactly loading up their carts with park goose, at least not at first. During the half hour I was there, only one package was nabbed, but to be fair, its competition was steep. The goose was shelved between Tender Belly ham, pesto salmon and unusually succulent-looking chicken breasts. It would take an adventurous soul to choose the goose.
But for those brave enough to take a gander, Denver park goose is a pleasant surprise.
