Gentlemen farmers

I’ve finished the book The Bucolic Plague by Josh Kilmer-Purcell. I bought it at an LGBT bookstore in Ann Arbor going out of buisness. Josh and Brent are a gay couple who live in New York City where Josh is an advertising executive and Brent is a Vice President of the Martha Stewart Living organization. One day, back in 2006, they drove through rural New York west of Albany. They were charmed by the little town of Sharon Springs. They spent the night at a hotel run by another gay couple. In the morning they passed the Beekman Mansion, built in 1802, and were charmed again. To their delight, it was for sale. The next spring they bought it and started to turn it back into a working farm.

Slight problem – they still worked in NYC during the week. Weekends became a sprint trying to finish all the tasks before they needed to head back to the city. Of course, they overdid it – Josh tells of a 36 hour session to can all the tomatoes because they would spoil before he could be back at the farm and he had put in so much effort to grow them.

There are tender moments, such as watching a goat give birth to triplets. Josh is also good with the witty comment. During the birthing process he comments:

I was shocked at how easy – and messy – it all seemed. The clumps of bloody goo surrounding the new kid looked a little superfluous to me. Was all that glop really necessary? If humans could engineer a spotless McDonald’s take-out window, couldn’t God have done the same?

There are other issued to deal with. Brett tried to bring Martha Stewart perfectionism to the farm. Josh decided to make the garden even bigger, then couldn’t keep up with it. The 2008 recession hit and both lost their jobs. They realized they have to come up with the way for the farm to be profitable. They started with goat milk soap and a country living website and that also threatened to overwhelm them.

However, they persevered. I just visited their Beekman 1802 website. Ten years later they’re still selling goat milk soap and lots of other stuff. Their farm has become a brand the features food, beauty products, and crafts by local people.

The book was fun. The website is just commercial, in spite of all they say. Even so, it may be worth it to see the mansion.