would actually 'all be safely gathered in" by the 29th September (Michaelmas),Adrian.

Let's do a litle culinary detective work....;-)

A traditional dish to be served on Michaelmas was stubble goose.

Here is Jane Grigson's definition of a "stubble" Goose:

....on Michaelmas Day, 29 September, it would be a stubble goose. A stubble goose was a green goose, so called because it had fed all summer on pastures, and then additionally been fattened by feeding on the stubble of the harvested wheat and barley. Tradition has it that green geese are served with sorrel and bilberry sauce, whereas stubble geese were eaten with one of apples, onions and barberries. Other traditions have the goose stuffed with either sage and onion or prunes."

page 201.

The Housekeeper's Instructor or Universal Family Cook (1807) by W A Henderson, gives these instructions for the raising of geese:

To fatten green geese, you must shut them up when they are about a month old,and when they will be fat in about a month more. Be sure to let them have always by them some fine hay in a small rack, which will much hasten their fattening. But for fattening older geese, it is commonly done when they are about six months old, after harvest, when they have been in the stubble fields.

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