A Carbonear teacher's side hustle is selling turkeys

For most teachers, the holidays mean it's time for a break. But for David Kennedy, it's when things can get very busy — and that's because he is also a turkey farmer.

Kennedy teaches math at Carbonear Collegiate, and he runs Kennedy's Farm in nearby Freshwater.

He said things have been hectic in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

"We don't have the facilities to do thousands as they do south of the border. So it makes it very hectic," said Kennedy. "You have to make sure that everything is delivered on time for those wishing to receive [a turkey]." 

Kennedy's Farm sells big turkeys to restaurants in St. John's, as well as local meat shops and the general public. 

While for other farms turkey sales boom around Thanksgiving, Kennedy said Christmas is the peak season in Newfoundland and Labrador. 

"We sold, I guess, almost 400 fresh turkeys in the last number of days," Kennedy said Monday. 

From teacher to farmer

Kennedy took over the farm, previously known as Noel's Farm, in 2022. At the beginning, he said, there was a steep learning curve, particularly about turkeys and how they grow.

"The biggest thing is growth patterns," he said. 

Day-old chicks are imported from Ontario, getting their first bit of water and food on their first day at the farm, said Kennedy. At first, the chicks grow very little, but at around 10 to 12 weeks, they start to eat and grow much larger.

"And even the amount of space that they take up, some local farmers …try to raise a few turkeys, but they don't get over how quick they fill up the space," said Kennedy. 

Also, he said it can be hard to maintain their weight as he can't really control how much they eat. 

"It's not like you can say, 'OK, we'll cut this one back and we'll put that one back…' It's that juggernaut of how do you keep birds to a certain size?"

He said growing things is actually the easiest part of being a farmer, and the difficult part is marketing the product and trying to regain Noel's farm's customer base. 

"I'm not really a business person, like I said, I'm a teacher," he said. "We finally have gotten the customer base that we need to have I guess on a go-forward basis to make it successful." 

As for the turkey dinner, Kennedy says his turkeys are juicy and tender. 

"The birds that we kill [are] at most a couple of couple of weeks old, you know, and that's the difference."

CBC Newfoundland Morning7:24For turkey farmers, Christmas is their busy season; we'll hear how one farmer deals with the demand.

Christmas Day is almost here; for many people, a big part of the day is Christmas dinner. And, for most of us, Christmas dinner means turkey. That means it's a busy season for turkey farmers like David Kennedy, who owns Kennedy Farm in Freshwater. He gave us insight into the industry at this time of year.

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