Ep 76: The Fabulous Beekman Boys: Josh and Brent

The Baub Show

April 18, 2011- What do you get when you combine a former Vice President of Martha Stewart Living, a drag queen turned ad exec and New York Times bestselling author, an estate and farm in upstate New York, a few quirky neighbors and goats, pigs and a llama to boot? The answer: a funny and irreverent Planet Green series focused on organic living, connecting to the earth, raising animals humanely, and just living a simple, sustainable lifestyle. In 2010, I discovered not only a treasured new author (I Am Not Myself These Days is hands down my favorite memoire), but also two new heroes who not only share my twisted dicotomy for big city fabulousness but also back to my roots farming. The Fabulous Beekman Boys, is not to be missed. Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge These guys are total city-slicker New Yorkers, but they have moved upstate to try and revive a farm and create a new organic lifestyle brand, 'Beekman 1802'. For them, that turns out to mean wrangling pigs and wrapping 14,000 bars of organic goat milk soapâ??not a typical day in their previous New York life. Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Dr. Brent Ridge are not your average couple. They have transplanted themselves from New York City to Beekman Farm in upstate New York, where they are raising 80 goats, two pigs, a dozen chickens and a narcissistic llama. These guys have urban professional backgrounds and they're now making goat milk soap. Technically, Josh isn't new to upstate New York. He was born there, but then raised in rural Wisconsin. He is the New York Times bestselling author of I Am Not Myself These Days and Candy Everybody Wants and also a new book soon to hit the shelves called The Bucolic Plague which is about moving to the farm. He is a monthly columnist for OUT magazine and a contributor to NPR. Born and raised in North Carolina, Brent is an Assistant Clinical Professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He was Vice President of Healthy Living at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and he writes for care2.com and The Huffington Post. Brent is described as having a type A personality, while Josh is more laid back. Friends who visit them upstate attest to the difficulties they face trying to live the simple life. Turns out, it's not so simple. But, as they said: "We believe that a farm can be much larger than its fences. If someone told us that we'd trade in New York City for eighty goats, two pigs, a dozen chickens and a narcissistic llama, we would have told them that they were crazy. It turns out that we are." We are excited to be welcoming Josh back to the show for a second time and will be making sure the studio is extra clean for Brent (in spite of the fact he will be calling in from across the country). Joining as co-host this week is Ray Allen.