In 2007, Brent Ridge and his companion and partner since 2000, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, two Manhattan urbanites , openly gay, bought a two-century-old mansion named 'Beekman Manor' plus the farm that went with it. And that's was THE idea :  the two urbanites would change their suits for the rubber boots that they would never take off, neither on the TV sets nor in the lecture rooms, and then they began a crash course in country living : these novice farmers would restore the farm.

    They were guided by their caretaker and resident farmer John Hall, or "Farmer John." Hall brought his goats to the Beekman Farm shortly after Ridge and Kilmer-Purcell purchased it in 2007 and their adventurous life is still going on. As a matter of fact these two rubberbooted partners are wellknown in the media. Brent Ridge was an American physician, formerly the Vice President of Healthy Living for Martha Stewart Omnimedia and Josh Kilmer-Purcell, a former drag-queen (called « Aquadisiac »), is one of the New York Times bestselling authors. He is, for example, the author of : I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir.

    At first, Brent was first living full-time at the farm while Josh worksed in the city during the week and commuted to the farm on weekends up to 2010. And their whole story was filmed by the cameras of Planet Green TV, part of the Discovery Network.

    Yes, a 'Real TV show' as we call it ! But soon it became some kind of a « real story » ! The two partners from Manhattan got really involved in the farm and loved it : vegetable garden, goats then breeding lamas, restoration of the farm itself, chores... The show is incredibly successful. As a matter of fact, the « Fabulous » Beekman Boys are everywhere on TV screens. They openly show their homosexuality, and, above all, they the always, always, always, always wear rubber boots —black ones, with red soles, as were the traditional American gumboots (even if they have now, for years, been made in China).

    They offered some milk from their farm to Martha Stewart who, captivated by the milk and, in addition, hosf of a very successful television show, invited them to do a segment on her TV show. Their charisma did the rest. They also made some soap under the name of Beekman 1802 and opened their own commercial website to sell products derived from produce raised on the farm : http://beekman1802.com/. NASDAQ has called Beekman 1802 “one of the fastest growing lifestyle brands in the United States”. In June 2010, Josh Kilmer-Purcell has also published an humorous essay about their challenge : The Bucolic Plague : How Two Manhattanites Became Goat Farmers (HarperCollins Publishers $24.99). .

    Always under the cameras, their success overtook them very quickly and their personal relations suffered. Planet Green understood quickly the importance of these docu-reality series : they want to show the incredible challenge of the two partners. Planet Green then announced that The Fabulous Beekman Boys series had been renewed for a second season, including other new characters such as Doug Plummer and Garth Roberts, owners of the American Hotel, but also showing the personal life of the two rubberbooted guys. The two «Beekman Boys» made their union official in December 2011.

    Since April 2012, Scripps Network Interactive had picked up the series for a third « season » on : Cooking Channel.

    Finally, on last December 2012, Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge won, beating out nine other teams, CBS’s 'The Amazing Race’s' $1 million grand prize. They plan to use their prize money to pay off their farm and by working on the farm full time, to invest in a new building and to launch a new line of food products named “The Mortgage Lifter,” with 25% of its profits going to help other small farmers pay off their debts.

     They are definitely lucky in their rubber boots !

                                                            Pascal BOURCIER