When Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell were preparing to host a party at their farm in upstate New York last summer, Ridge didn’t want the pig pen to “look like a pig pen.” So he took a hose to the offending animals to clean off the mud.
Life on a farm isn’t easy. Life on a farm when you’re a former employee of Martha Stewart is downright confusing.
Thankfully, it’s also entertaining and informative. The couple’s new reality show, “The Fabulous Beekman Boys,” debuts Wednesday on Planet Green.
The 10-episode series chronicles a year in the life of the New York City couple as they wrangle pigs, goats, chickens and llamas and launch a business selling their own goat’s milk cheese and soaps online and at stores in the city, like Murray’s Cheese and in 30 different restaurants, including ABC Kitchen, Trestle on Tenth and Freemans.
They call themselves “accidental farmers,” but they could just as easily be described as “accidental reality-show stars.”
On their annual fall leaf-peeping road trip in the country four years ago, Ridge and Kilmer-Purcell happened upon the run-down Beekman Mansion, built in 1802, on 60 acres of dormant farm land in Sharon Springs, N.Y., a down-on-its-luck spa village near Cooperstown. It was for sale and they snatched it up to make the perfect weekend home.
When Ridge, a doctor, lost his job as vice president of healthy living at Martha Stewart Omnimedia, he stayed upstate full-time while Kilmer-Purcell commuted on weekends from his job in the city as a creative director at the ad agency JWT.
The boys’ weekly email newsletter to friends about the progress on the farm landed in the inbox of Laura Michalchyshyn, general manager of Planet Green, who asked if they’d like to have a show.
“We told ourselves going into our farming adventures that we had to farm a different way since that way of life is dying out,” says Kilmer-Purcell, 40. “So if part of farming differently means doing TV and writing books and selling in high-end luxury stores, then maybe that’s the way to do it.”
They made a decision to be completely open about their lives — the good and the bad — on the show and they used the “Real Housewives” shows as a model. “We asked, ‘What makes this a good reality-TV show?’” says Ridge, who determined the most important thing is being honest.
“We have to air the dirty laundry because that’s what entertains people these days. So the gloves are off. The pants are off. Whatever has to come off we’ll take off.”
And then he jokes, “I just wanted a vehicle to get me on ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ “
But they do have lofty goals of tapping into the trendy farm-to-table movement. “What we really want to do is try to help small farms in small towns in America by making the introduction to people in the city, who are fascinated by that way of life,” says Kilmer-Purcell.
To that end, Ridge is giving seminars on Tuesday nights this summer at ABC Carpet and Home. He’ll be discussing cheese, heirloom tomatoes and honey, and selling their products, including bowls made in collaboration with a blacksmith upstate and their new Blaak Onion Jam.
“It’s really a condiment for the second season of the cheese, which just came out,” says Ridge.
“What Brent is saying is there’s no such thing as too busy for someone who’s worked for Martha Stewart,” says Kilmer-Purcell.
“She taught me well,” replies Ridge.
Made man
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