fromanimaltomeat

Opportunities to escape the concrete jungle and get a taste of small-farm life abound in the Minnesota summertime. Whether you’d like to do a basic farm tour, enjoy dinner served up right on the pastures where the food was raised, or even help out with farm chores for a day as part of a “crop mob,” you can find an option that gets your city-slicker self out in the fields for at least a few hours.

Ever heard of a guard goose? If you’re one of those aspiring farmers who wants to keep a few chickens in the backyard, you might want to investigate. As I learned at my second of a series of four livestock workshops at the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus, geese make great chicken protectors. They’ll fend off overly inquisitive opossums and raccoons and even attack coyotes that get too close to the coop! So if you can persuade your neighbors to overlook the inevitable honking, a goose might be a good investment. Plus, geese are apparently gaining popularity as Christmas dinner main courses.