Cynthia Billhartz Gregorian: What I learned from ‘The Fabulous Beekman Boys’
Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge are gentlemen farmers or, as I like to think of them, city boys gone country.
I’ll admit, I didn’t know much about the two who host “The Fabulous Beekman Boys” on the Cooking Channel before their appearance last weekend at the Johnson County Home & Garden Show at the Overland Park Convention Center. But I came away impressed by their ability to reinvent themselves, their generosity and their three rules of life: Work hard, never quit and help your neighbor.
They came up with those rules in the latest incarnation of their lives.
They had lived in New York City for 10 years in the same apartment and didn’t know who their neighbors were. Now the two raise goats on a farm in upstate New York and are among a bevy of celebrity rehabbers traipsing across local stages during home improvement expo season, which runs now through March.
On Feb. 6, Historic Kansas City will host its second annual Old House Expo from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Corinthian Hall, 3218 Gladstone Blvd. It will feature Bernice Radle, co-host of “American Rehab: Buffalo” on the DIY Network.
Radle and her husband, Jason Wilson, who have degrees in urban planning, buy and restore century-old homes otherwise destined for demolition.
During the expo, Radle will give a presentation, host a happy hour talk called “Home Rehab Reality TV: Fact vs. Fiction” and moderate a speed Q&A where audience members can have questions answered by local home rehab experts.
The expo also will feature vendors, contractors, banks, architects and other services specializing in preserving and renovating historic homes. Education sessions will focus on window restoration, plaster repair and period paint schemes.
Historic Kansas City volunteers also will be on hand to offer research assistance so attendees can learn more about the history of their homes.
Tickets are $20 at eventbrite.com. For more information, go to historickansascity.org.
Then, on March 19 and 20, Chip and Joanna Gaines, hosts of HGTV’s wildly popular “Fixer Upper,” return to the Greater Kansas City Home Show at Bartle Hall. Fans flooded the mainstage area during their appearance last year.
I’ll be talking to the Waco, Texas, couple to preview their visit, so stay tuned. Email cgregorian@kcstar.com with any questions you’d like me to ask.
But back to the Fabulous Beekman Boys.
Their story began in 2007, when partners Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell bought a farmhouse in Sharon Springs, N.Y. It was originally intended to be a weekend home for the New York pair.
Kilmer-Purcell was an ad executive and author of a New York Times best-selling book, while Ridge, a physician, worked for Martha Stewart Omnimedia as vice president of Healthy Living.
When both lost their jobs in 2008, they realized they’d have to make the farm profitable if they wanted to keep it. So they moved full time to Sharon Springs, took in a neighboring farmer and his dairy goats and began making soaps and cheese.
Eventually they parlayed their down-home labor into Beekman 1802, a brand that includes the TV show, lifestyle and cookbooks, home furnishings, a tourist destination (the farm) and, most recently, a small-farmer food line sold at 1,400 Target stores. But they first won CBS’ “Amazing Race” in 2012.
Some highlights from the affable pair and their appearance:
▪ They have big hearts for small farmers. That’s why they partnered with Target on the Beekman 1802 Farm Pantry products. The line includes heirloom tomato pasta sauce, goat cheese salad dressing and hand-rolled granola.
“We asked ourselves, ‘How can we get the small farmer represented in the middle of the grocery store?’ ” Ridge says. “Farmers markets make $1 billion a year in revenue, while grocery stores make $633 billion a year. We started by finding manufacturers already making each product, then introduced them to farmers in their area. We said, ‘You make a great product, but you have to use these particular farmers.’ ”
The pair also gives 25 percent of the profits from the Target line to small farmers with innovative ideas.
“We’ve given away $48,000 so far,” Kilmer-Purcell says. “So watch our Facebook page, because in March we’ll start taking applications.”
▪ It’s almost kidding season. The Beekman Boys have 147 goats and counting, and you can watch them on their goatcam at beekman1802.com.
“We’ll start kidding in the first week of February, then move the camera into the nursery,” Ridge says, adding that they’re expecting close to 200 kids to be born.
▪ “The Amazing Race” is as hard as it looks. An audience member asked how they slept and ate while competing on the reality-TV show.
“Sometimes, when we were very lucky, we slept in a hotel, sometimes on a sidewalk and sometimes in airports,” says Kilmer-Purcell, adding that they also sometimes ate french fries left behind on trays in airport food courts.
▪ Life on the farm helped them win the race. And vice versa. “The farm taught us a lot about working with others and not giving up,” Kilmer-Purcell says.
Adds Ridge: “We were struggling to get our farm up and running and had we not won ‘The Amazing Race’ in 2012, we would not have been able to pay off our mortgage.”
This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 10:43 AM with the headline "Cynthia Billhartz Gregorian: What I learned from ‘The Fabulous Beekman Boys’ ."