Plan for geese may be too tough to swallow

Albany Times Union, NY – Jun 16, 2014
Scotia proposes donating doomed Collins Lake birds to food pantries; some say it’s a recipe for bad taste
 
By DAN HIGGINS, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Friday, June 16, 2014
How do you cook this goose? There are a few ways to roast the wild bird, but it’s tough.
Very tough, said Paul Parker, the owner and executive chef of Chez Sophie Bistro in Saratoga Springs. And that’s the problem. The wild variety aren’t nearly as fat and tender as their farm-raised cousins, he said Parker offered several possible solutions to cooking the meat. The village of Scotia said this week it wished to donate it to local food pantries after a roundup of the birds set for later this month.
Village officials said they are responding in part to public concern over the original plan to send the birds to a landfill after they are killed. The geese will be suffocated with carbon dioxide.
Still, the details on how the geese around Collins Lake will eventually make it to the tables of needy families are elusive.
First, the birds aren’t all that easy to prepare, said Parker.
“You’re going to want to confit the thigh meat, or cook it in its own fat, with a lot of salt on it,” Parker said.
“You could grill or sear the breast, but not more than medium rare or it will be just too tough,” he said.
In other words, giving the meat to needy families won’t be an easy solution and not just because the birds could prove difficult to prepare.
Local food pantries offered reactions on Thursday that ranged from cautiously open to the idea to downright skeptical.
“We’ve had some people who said they would never accept it,” said Janice Cooper, who runs a busy emergency food pantry twice a week out of the First Baptist Church of Scotia on Mohawk Avenue. The pantry serves 200 village families each month.
“And I’m not so sure we’d want it,” she said. But she noted that she’d give the idea a chance for others to offer their opinion. She worried about the quality of the meat.
Lynda Schuyler, executive director of the Food Pantries of the Capital District, which oversees 42 food pantries in Albany and Rensselaer counties, said she supports any plan that doesn’t waste food.
“If they can get it to work and get the food in a manner that’s usable to our clients, I’d be interested,” she said.
She noted many people who need emergency food pantries often don’t have advanced cooking skills because many work such long days they don’t have the time.
Scotia officials said the plans are still being worked out, but they promised the meat would be inspected by the proper authorities, including the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
A spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Agriculture and Markets said licensed slaughterhouses can properly test the meat and legally give it away.
“Our main concern is that people are getting a quality product,” said spokeswoman Jessica Chittenden.
The idea is not without precedent, said Mark Quandt, the executive director of the Food Bank of Northeastern New York, based in Latham.
Each year, he said, hunters donate thousands of pounds of venison that goes to needy families around the region.
As for whether the goose idea will fly, Quandt declined to comment.
“If they actually contact us, we would then have a decision to make, but until then I’ll reserve judgment,” he said.
Animal activists remain determined to stop the goose cull. They said the village hasn’t tried enough nonlethal methods before deciding to kill the birds. The group Save the Geese has been attempting to scare away the birds from Collins Park and the lake for nearly two weeks, in the hopes that few birds will remain when the cull begins.
Higgins can be reached at 454-5523 or by e-mail at dhiggins@timesunion.com.