He might be best known as the unflappable Friendly Farmer, but even Ronan Byrne admits he’ll feel a flutter of anticipation on Christmas Day carving one of his own pasture-reared Norfolk bronze turkeys – or, as he describes them, the “Angus” of the feathered family.

“You’d be mad keen to taste it because you’ve poured yourself into it for six months,” he says, explaining that this Christmas his 35-acre farm in Athenry, Co Galway, will feed 1,300 families between his award-winning turkeys, dry-plucked geese, ducks and chickens.

But the 2015 National Local Food Hero was once told that he would never make a full-time living from the farm he had inherited from his grandparents.

“I always wanted to be a farmer, but at the time farming wasn’t cool,” he smiles wryly, explaining that while he went to Mountbellew agri college after school, he then went on to study business and marketing, followed by a masters in European policy.

“It was the height of the Celtic Tiger, so get a suit and tie on you as fast as you can and go to Dublin.”

So, off he went to the IFSC – and lasted six months.

“The tell-tell sign might have been I was probably the only person in the canteen reading the Irish Farmers Journal,” he laughs.

Listen to an interview with Ronan Byrne in our podcast below:

Roles in marketing followed, but, unsurprisingly, when an opportunity came up to manage a dairy farm in Poland, he was on the first plane to Warsaw.

“I went out for two weeks for a look around and ended up staying three years,” he says. “If you show a fella from the west of Ireland who has 35 acres, 1,300 acres and go: ‘Do you want to manage this?’ Well, you’d be mad not to.”

However, it was farming on such a large scale that Ronan says actually hammered home the value of his 35 acres in Athenry, with a population of 100,000 within a 20km radius. He began researching everything from energy crops to buffalo mozzarella, until he read that the average person will eat 500 chickens in their lifetime.

“So, the penny dropped,” he recalls. And in 2007, Ronan returned to Athenry, invested in 75 chicks and started The Friendly Farmer.

“I just wanted to prove that it could be done and I wanted to be able to live in the community that I was brought up in,” he says.

“And the way we farm has enabled me to do that. I’m married here, I have two kids, another on the way, my parents live over the road.

“That’s why I did it.”

Using savings and selling cattle to get started, Ronan sold chickens to family, friends and neighbours before knocking on the doors of some of Galway’s leading chefs, like JP McMahon of the Michelin-starred Aniar and Jess Murphy of Kai.

“Your hands are sweating and your tongue is dry,” he recalls of working up the courage.

“But chefs really want the connection with the farmer – they crave the connection in fact – because chefs need good, raw ingredients.”

Having started with just 75 birds in a box, today Ronan sells 300 to 400 pasture-reared chickens a week, as well as his turkeys and geese, supplying restaurants and his pop-up shop at the Galway and Moycullen farmers’ markets. With the support of Galway Enterprise Board, he built his own abattoir on the farm and hopes it will become a hub for other poultry producers in the region.

And with accolades including National Local Food Hero 2015 at the Irish Restaurant Awards, Ronan seems well placed as a rural entrepreneurship specialist with UCD’s Innovation Academy, helping other people turn their ideas into reality.

So, what has been the biggest challenge he has faced with The Friendly Farmer?

“Getting someone to marry me,” he jokes, before quickly qualifying it was actually finding the courage to pursue his dream.

“The biggest challenge I would have faced was my own fear of starting something,” he says of his tendency to procrastinate.

“There’s a saying in agriculture: ‘You can’t plough a field over in your head.’ Farming is seasonal, so if you don’t decide to plough the field next spring, you have to wait 12 months to plough it again – and a lot can change in those 12 months.

“And it’s only one simple decision, but you can put that decision off for next year – but two years are gone.”

Clearly, Ronan has made up for lost time, with December being the busiest month of the year.

“When six months of hard work all culminates in about two weeks,” he smiles.

On 23 December, he will host a market on the farm so customers can pick up their orders in a festive environment and meet other local producers. Then, it’s family time with his wife Maria and their two daughters Aoibheann (four) and Muire (two), his parents Mary and Padraic and the wider clan, with his turkey taking centre stage on Christmas Day.

So, what is The Friendly Farmer’s top tip for the perfect Christmas turkey?

“Get your mother or mother-in-law to cook it,” he deadpans, “and it will definitely be perfect!”

Best not ruffle any feathers...

The Friendly Farmer, Knockbrack, Athenry, Co Galway. For further information, call 087-620-3765 or visit thefriendlyfarmer.blogspot.ie