Meeting the Fabulous Beekman Boys

With Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge, The Fabulous
Beekman Boys and  Amazing Race contestants,
at the Hudson Farmers Market

After last week's premiere episode of The Amazing Race, I fell in love with the gay goat farmers Josh and Brent. While listening to their intro story (two  Manhattanites chucking the city and moving to a farm in upstate NY), I said to myself "That sounds familiar." Later in the week, I realized this was more than just a gay version of "Green Acres." One of the Racers is an author and I had come across his memoir "The Bucolic Plaque" in a book store a while back and I remember thinking "That sounds interesting, I'll have to read it sometime." In addition, they mentioned on TAR their farm was in Sharon Springs, NY and I'd actually been to that town. A few summers back, my husband Jerry, some friends, and I went to the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown and we had dinner at the American Hotel in nearby Sharon Springs. The meal sticks in my mind because this was the first time I had encountered a $40 entree. And this wasn't even in Soho! I didn't order it, but still...There was a NYT article about the new cardiac-inducing tariff cropping up on menus. So to me, Sharon Springs will always be the home of the $40 entree. (BTW, the opera was enjoyable)

Getting back to the Racers, during this past week I discovered that not only are these guys on my favorite reality show, but they also one of their own--The Fabulous Beekman Boys (the estate they bought is called the Beekman) which is in reruns on The Cooking Channel starting this past Thursday. This series premiered on Planet Green (which I don't even know if I still get in my cable package) and details their lives on the farm with Brent, a former VP with Martha Stewart, staying upstate all week, while Josh, a best-selling author is in the city working in advertising and coming up on the weekends. I found the first season on Netflix and have seen the first few episodes on my Kindle Fire. The second season, plus a Christmas special is on Amazon Prime ($1.99 per episode), but I guess I can catch up with these segments on the Cooking Channel. They overlap with the last half-hour of Project Runway which is almost finished, but then there's Project Runway All-Stars. I'll have to DVR the middle-of-the-night repeats.

I enjoyed the Beekman show since it kinda parallels my life as a gay husband with a weekend place in upstate NY. But I don't have 30 goats or a cheese and soap business and I don't know Martha Stewart. But I do have to mow the goddamn lawn and spray for spiders. (Well, Jerry does the second thing mostly.) And I have a Martha Stewart cookbook (the recipes are HARD!)

As I learned more about the Beekman Boys, I saw they would be appearing this weekend to sign their new cookbook at the Farmer's Market in Hudson, which is right next door to us in Stockport. Always ready to meet an Amazing Race team in the flesh, I woke up at the ungodly hour of 10 AM to say hi. Both guys were very nice (see picture taken on my cell phone). Josh explained that he didn't let the monster truck guy push past him at the airport in the last segment. He was just obeying the rules of not cutting in line or ducking under the special Racers Only rope stanchion (is that how you spell it?) I had rushed over to the Spotted Dog Book Store to buy a copy of The Bucolic Plague which Josh autographed for me. As soon as I finish Cloud Atlas, it's first on my list.

I told Josh about The David Desk and he asked to link their site so here it is. Josh has two other books out I'm Not Myself Today, a memoir on his days and nights as a drag queen, and Candy Everyone Wants, a novel. I will have to download those to the Kindle.

I'm looking forward to tonight's Amazing Race episode now that I now so much more about The Beekman Boys. This is probably the most I've known about any TAR team since the despicable Rob and Amber who thankfully have not graced my TV screen since Rob resurfaced on Survivor.