Mari, Rozi and Iren, the three sisters have been goose-stuffers (force-feeding geese) for more than 30 years. It was Mari who first started stuffing. The first 60 geese all became „gugás”. This is what they call when a goose’s crop gets hurt during stuffing and it gets swollen.

A few years later, when Rozi and Irén joined Mari, they had an easier start as their sister passed her knowledge on to the little sisters. Mari was a successful stuffer: she appeared in a press article and stuffers were brought by buses to learn from her. 17 days, 103 goose-stuffings. That’s how a goose liver becomes big. This 2.5 weeks is now 28 days.

It is still hard work in the last few days to stuff the geese twice during the night. Since 2002, Rozi and Irén have force-fed only their own or their relatives’ geese for the Christmas season. Mari ̶̶ despite her Parkinson’s disease ̶̶ , helped her sisters slaughter the geese up until her death.

Today, goose-stuffers have almost completely disappeared from the villages of Hungary.

Iren at the end of the day shepherds her young geese home from grazing.

Mari and Iren are talking about the quality of the corn and the growth of the geese while stuffing.

Rozi is bringing the enormously fattened geese by their wings from the shed to slaughter. The fowls are 7-8 kilograms on average when they get slaughtered. Rozi’s largest goose weighed 11 kgs.

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Iren is cutting the wings off the goose – they can be utilized as outdoor brooms or dusters.

Iren is scalding the goose so its feathers can be torn off more easily.