BELLEVILLE, Pa. — In Mifflin County and several neighboring central Pennsylvania counties, every September 29 is Goose Day. In 2005, my wife explained it this way:

If you eat goose on Michaelmas Day, you will never want money all the year round.”

One reason for this belief is that Michaelmas (Archangel Michael’s feast day) was traditionally one of the English “Quarter Days”, when people would settle their rents and accounts. The settling of accounts was often done with a brace of plump geese from the spring hatching.

Therefore, if you could afford to eat goose on this day (probably after paying rent with some of your fowl), you would probably not want for money in the coming year.

Since we happened to be in Mifflin County, we made it a point to get goose. The restaurant adjacent to the hotel we were staying at was booked, so after searching for something like “Mifflin County Goose Day” we discovered A.J. Peachey’s in the Big Valley, halfway between Reedsville and Belleville. We drove down Route 655 and saw the sign for Peachey’s telling us to turn right. We passed on a complex on the left that looked like it might be Peachey’s, but there wasn’t signage confirming it. After several miles of driving on a delightful road, we turned around and checked out the unmarked establishment, confirming it was Peachey’s. We dined in the cafe which is a new building (apparently there was a fire recently) with a new, rustic like interior. We ordered our goose dinners at the counter and picked them up a few minutes later. The goose came shredded instead of sliced with mashed potatoes and gravy, plus corn. It was tasty comfort food that I would have no hesitation getting again. A choice of apple or pumpkin pie or soft serve ice cream was included for dessert. We’d go back.

In future years, we’ll likely go back to cooking our own goose like we did in 2007, but we may try doing it in the crock pot next time. We’ll let you know in about a year.