This Year Sees An Increase In Demand For Goose For Christmas Dinner

SOMERTON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 15: Farmer Harvey Maunder sits with his flock of free-range geese that he has reared for the Christmas table, in front of the farmhouse at Home Farm in the village of Kingsweston on December 15, 2015 near Somerton, England. The birds, which have been reared as free-range from chicks and have already broken out to eat Mrs Maunder's Christmas sprouts, are due to be dispatched and prepared for the farm shop's customers on Thursday. Although the Somerset poultry farm has been rearing geese for generations, nationally there has been a sharp increase in goose sales for this Christmas which could be due to a recent storyline in the BBC Radio drama 'The Archers'. Traditionally goose was the staple of the Christmas diet but was gradually overtaken by turkey with 10 million consumed last year compared to with around 250,000 geese. However many consumers are now preferring the smaller bird and darker meat to turkey and sales of geese are rising year on year. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)