By Chris Aldridge

Kentucky Ag News

FRANKFORT - Seventeen days before Thanksgiving, S & V Farms sold out of its pasture-raised organic whole turkeys.

“We advertise early, but when mid-October hit, the orders really started coming in,” said Hemi Demos, who manages the Kentucky Proud family farm in Mercer County. It is owned by her parents, Sharon and Vic Lovingood, the “S” and “V” in the farm’s name.

“We started with 25 (turkeys), but we advertise only 20,” she added. “We sold 15, kept one for our family’s Thanksgiving, and parted up the rest of them.”

The farm still has breasts, legs, wings, and ground turkey available (as of Nov. 17) at the farm’s roadside Meat Market at 421 Phillips Lane near Harrodsburg. Online orders can be placed at www.sandvfarms.com.

“We had some people asking just for breasts, people that are just cooking for themselves and not a large gathering,” Demos said. “We took some turkey legs to the (Mercer County) Farmers’ Market, and they sold out.”

This is the third year that S & V has sold turkeys in addition to a CSA (community supported agriculture) that offers pasture-raised pork and chicken, and optional eggs and seasonal produce. The first year was a learning curve when its Giant White turkeys lived up to their name.

“Two years ago, we ended up with 20- to 30-pound turkeys!” Demos said, noting the farm switched to Midget White turkeys last fall. “Our largest this year was 18 pounds.”

In early summer, the newborn poults arrive at the farm from a hatchery in Ohio.

“We get them 2-3 days old,” she said. “We definitely love raising them. We look forward to it every year.

“They’re real docile birds. We put them in a big moveable pen and rotate it around the pasture. One day, wind lifted the pen, but they stayed right there (and thought) like ‘What do we do?’”

Demos said the farm plans to sell another bird-related product next year.

“We’re going to offer up duck eggs,” she said. “They’re great for baking. They’re higher in protein than chicken eggs, and they make stuff like pancakes and baked goods a lot fluffier and light.”

Demos’ family farmed beef cattle near Knoxville, Tennessee, before she left home eight years ago to attend Midway University, where she majored in equine management. Her parents followed their daughter to Kentucky, buying and restoring the farm in eastern Mercer County that had sat idle for five years.

“I just got my MBA in management,” said Demos, whose duties on the farm allow her to stay at home while raising her 1-year-old son.

Future plans include adding sheep to the farm, which the family raised in Tennessee.

“We would also like to get our products into small grocery stores,” Demos said. “We’ve talked with the IGA (grocery) in Burgin (Kentucky) about supplying produce. We’d like to expand to smaller shops that sell meat or produce.

“We’re growing as fast the community around us will let us,” she added. “Our drive is to provide good farm-fresh food for not only our own family but for others.”