ALL NEW BEEKMAN 1802

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:48:22 -0400

Beekman 1802 has a brand new home. Not literally, of course. Dr. Brent, Josh, Farmer John & the goats are still celebrating the seasons at The Beekman in Sharon Springs. But virtually, we’ve set up a whole new site for Beekman 1802. Now it’s even easier for us all to share seasonal ideas with each other.

Visit our new digs at beekman1802.com.

And if you’re a subscriber to our old blogs, our rss feed has changed too. You can re-subscribe here to stay completely up to date with all our goat going-ons.

And finally, if you haven’t already, subscribe to the Beekman 1802 e-newsletter to get sneak peeks at new products and surprise discounts.

See you in the next pasture over...

LETTERS FROM HOMES

Sat, 7 Mar 2009 13:44:26 -0500

As many of you know, the farm and the goats were featured in the New York Times recently, and we were overwhelmed by the number of messages we received. It is a wonderful feeling to receive so much mail from folks who feel as inspired by The Beekman as we do.

Truth be told, one of the reasons that we spend so much time on this website is because we are equally inspired by everyone who comes to “visit” us. Just read through a few of the letters we received to see some of the fabulous things our readers are doing.

Don’t forget to share your own creative triumphs this season. Comment on any page that tickles your fancy. We’re all in this to learn from each other.

Here are just a few of the lovely notes we received:

“Just a heartfelt note to let you know how you have helped change my life.

Just looking at your website got me excited about renovating my home, eating healthierand taking care of myself and my surroundings. I have been in a rut for years, but because of your inspiration, have already lost 10 lbs and started home renovations.

I thought about how you both have chosen to live and love your lives. The care you put into your home, into your garden, goats, friends, work, and also into educating people like me. It has filled me with a new hope.

I got your soap (the big Honey bar and February soap) and LOVE it. Using it reminds me to be mindful of being good to myself, and to others. To go the extra mile with everything.”

“Dear Josh and Brent, what a fabulous website! After reading the NYT article I clicked the link and found myself in my dream come true! It's so inspiring! I always thought this kind of dream-to-reality quite natural. But sadly most people get stuck in the dream sequence and don't find the courage to realize it. My favorites are the lamas and the young goats (nice video!) About myself: I'm a photographer turned writer (still) living in Germany. My first manuscript was too wild for the market but my second one seems not to. An agent is reading it right now and says he loves it. Now more than ever I know that as soon as I will be able to make a living with my writing I will start another happy "farm".
All best!”

“Thank you for the beauty and inspiration!!! After reading the article about you both, and your wonderful home, and lives, in the New York Times this week, I could not wait to read your website -- and can tell, immediately, it will be an ongoing friend. Delicious in every way! Wonder glistens in all you are doing. How kind of you to share it!”

“Your site is lovely! It is a vacation for my eyes! Especially love the YouTube videos!! Maybe you can film the train trip by the Hudson River some time. Thank you for joy!”

After reading the article on Beekman1802 appearing in the Times yesterday, I have been drawn back again and again to read it and to share in your happiness. I have emailed all my friends about your life in the country, and they have joined me in becoming acquainted with the two of you and what you have achieved together. I must admit a certain jealousy tempers my joy just a fraction, but believe me it is soon mitigated by my ability to get out of bed at 2 a.m. as today to revisit your goats and turkeys and share the sound of rain from your front porch.

You have no idea how you have delighted a 78-year-old gay man in Oklahoma. Thank you so much.

Go for it all; accept nothing less!

Hello there and thanks for sharing your interests with us. Our friend whom lives in NYC and read an article about your home sent us the necessary information. Lovely home and philosophy. We moved from Manhattan to the Loire Valley six years ago. We found a spectacular turreted, moated 15th cent. Manor house. If you are ever in France, please visit. Should you like to see our site, please go to: www.saumurfrancemanor.com We have many more updated photos at: www.purefrance.com and go to two different residences: 49004 for the Manor house and 49007 for Maison Louis Richard. We have cooking classes here and both do interior and exterior design in France. Enjoy the spring time!

HI BRENT AND JOSH,

I READ THE ARTICLE ON YOUR HOME TODAY IN THE NY TIMES AND WENT TO YOUR WEBSITE TO SEE BEEKMAN. I SALUTE YOU BOTH. IT IS MAGNIFICENT. WHAT A JOY IT MUST BE FOR YOU BOTH TO UNWIND FROM THE CRAZINESS OFTHE CITY AS YOU PERUSE YOUR ESTATE. AND HOW LUCKY FOR YOU THAT ALL THE MAIN RESTORATION WAS DONE EARLIER. HAVING DONE RESTORATION WORK I CAN ASSURE YOU, YOU FOUND THE BETTER PATH TO TAKE. JOSH, I WANTED TO TELL YOU I HAVE BEEN A FAN OF YOURS FOR QUITE SOME TIME. I SO ENJOY READING YOUR ARTICLES IN OUT MAGAZINE EVERY MONTH. WE HAVE NOT BEEN UP TO YOUR NECK OF THE WOODS IN YEARS BUT IF WE EVER GET UP THERE I HOPE WE CAN COME AND VISIT YOU AND SEE YOUR HANDIWORK.

I ALSO CONGRATULATE YOU ON YOUR WEBSITE. VERY WELL CONSTRUCTED. I ENJOYED THE VARIOUS BLOGS, ESPECIALLY THE ONE ON MARY BEEKMAN AND THE VIDEO TOURS. GOD BLESS YOU BOTH WITH CONTINUED SUCCESS IN BEEKMAN AND IN YOUR CITY JOBS.

I am a 7th and 8th grade Family & Consumer Science teacher at Sharon Springs Central School.

Part of my curriculum for the past three years has been healthy eating through organic and locally grown foods.

I would like to arrange a midweek spring tour of your home/garden/farm, etc.

Thank you for bringing such life and information to our community.

Dear Brent and Josh,

On metro-north yesterday evening, heading back to Kent after a scrumptious Dress Rehearsal of La Sonnambula at the Met, I spied/peeked at a copy of the New York Times, being read by a neighbor. Lo and behold, handsome pictures of you both and the farm!

All best to you and the baby goats...

Good morning....I read the article about Beekman 1802 in the Friday Times section, Escapes. I went on line this morning and am really enjoying learning about it. My partner and I have a Flower/Interior Accents shop and are looking forward to enjoying some of the items in your store and sharing them with our employees. I am looking forward to seeing the items change with the seasons

Gentlemen, the Times article was very inspiring! Thank you! I am now a subscriber.

Hi,

I am a huge fan of your soaps for my little one and am on your email list. I just read your article on the goats' fame...would love to send you some fresh Dancing Goats coffee as a congrats! Is the mailing address on your newsletter the best for sending perishables? (To read more about the coffee, www.dancinggoats.com) I just thought it would be too cute (and that you would enjoy it)

Just put down the article about you in today's Times. What a wonderful place to call "home." Incredible. read the article in today's times and had to check out your site. bless you for doing what you've done. i only WISH i could.(sigh...)

So glad to see Sharon Springs having the potential of becoming "New Chelsea" - the article in the Times was great; very impressive - the guys at the American Hotel told us about your buying that amazing home - so belatedly welcome to the neighborhood! My husband and I have a place in Richmondville, and we come up after the snow melts and the garden begins - amazingly, but of course you know this already, about mid-May - and we'd love to meet you both. We live in the city, in Chelsea, and although I've often thought about leaving my practice and patients and going back to the land, you guys have had the courage to actually do it, with style.

Gentlemen,

I read with great interest the article on your farm in the New York Times today. I have lived the last twenty years in New Orleans, but I am originally from Poultney, Vermont which is less than an hour from Beekman 1802.

I thoroughly enjoyed looking at the beautiful photographs of your home and farm. It was the bright spot in an otherwise dreadful morning. As a child, I also had goats. I think you would agree that they are an underappreciated animal, today. There are such sweet creatures.

I will not take up any more of your time, but I am delighted to be a member of your mailing list. Though I live in a city, I can always escape to the country by visiting your web site.

Hi,

Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading about your "doings" at Beekman 1802. It really sounds amazing and the sort of thing that many of us would like to do - given the youth and money!

Your web site is beautiful and has much to interest the viewer/reader. I especially enjoyed the "goats" feature.

Anyway, I have included my local web site for the Fairlington community (Arlington, VA) -- we were built in 1943 by the order of President Roosevelt for housing for the workers building the Pentagon. Built in the Colonial Revival style, Fairlington remained rentals until being converted to condominiums in the seventies. We were placed on the National Register of Historic Places and also on the Virginia Landmarks Register after two years of dedicated volunteer work. Currently we are an oasis of 7 separate associations amidst urban sprawl! Our community web site is www.fairlington.org

My garden site is http://www.fairlington.org/gardenadvisor.htm. If you have the inclination and get a chance, check out some of the photo series of my "garden" -- an English style border along 3 sides of a very small townhouse.

Thanks for sharing all the wonderful information about your home/farm/and lifestyle.

What wonderful press! You two are living the life. Even if it's not always glamorous, it's what most people dream of. Especially these days.

Hi Brent and Josh,

I enjoyed reading about Beekman 1802 in the NY Times today. As a New England architect living in an antique home myself, I greatly admire your country home. Though my home is Georgian too (c. 1768), it isn't anywhere near as fabulous as yours. We live in a portion of our Georgian as a condo. Anyway, I admire well-crafted homes and write about them often in the online magazine I produce, House Enthusiast http://www.katiehutchison.com/house-enthusiast/. If you get a spare moment, drop by and take a look.

I was interested to read that you have goats and make/market goat milk soap. I'm wondering if you've ever considered offering goat cheese camp. I'm thinking of a one-week intensive course on the property with a goat cheese expert and maybe ten adult students. I don't know anything about goats, but I know I love goat cheese. I have several friends who are also interested in attending goat cheese camp, so I'm sure I could help you fill a class with other likeminded students. It seems like a dreamy way get in touch with the countryside and live closer to the land -- if only for a week.

Let me know if you have any interest in the idea. Meanwhile, I will continue to enjoy your website and interesting pursuits

Dear Dr. Ridge and Mr. Kilmer-Purcell,

I'm a Dutchman, living in the UK, reading amonst others the New York Times, on line. This is how I stumbled upon your existence and your property.

I just feel the urge to give you a big compliment for what you're doing.
The house you inhabit and promote is amazingly beautiful and the things you do with it are fantastic. I very much recognize your words as well.

I wish you every succes with everything you do, all in good health!

Hi guys:

Your article in the New York Times was wonderful! Also, I noticed in the article you have an interest in the elderly.

My company nurtures the elderly with hand-written (not computer generated) letters of friendship and caring. I am always on the lookout for great stationery and gifts and just ordered some of both from YOU!

I hope you will visit my website (noted below) when you have an opportunity as Mother's and Father's Days are fast approaching. I would be grateful if you would tell your friends about Letters-from-the-Heart. Thanks so much.

Dear Brent and Josh,

I loved the piece about you and your lovely house in the Times today. I have an old farmhouse in Ulster County in a town called Accord.

It wasn't on my wish list but after a dreadful marriage, the house was dumped on my lap. I was born and reared in Brooklyn, always lived in
apartments and knew nothing about country living. When I heard the word 'joist' I thought the contractor was talking about his girlfriend. I am
Green Acres with carting my garbage in Manolo Blahnik bags, of course with the new economy, I've run out of those.

My twin sister and I have a blog...
http://yvonneandyvettetiquette.blogspot.com/

It's about manners, remember those?
We have written about weekend guests manners or lack of and many other subjects relating to modern living.

Take care and all the best in your beautiful, healthy world.

Great house, and a great website.

Do you rotate your tomato crops every year? Do you have more than usual Tomato Blight or other tomato annoyances with your crops?

Time for me to worry about these things, of course. We use raised beds with non-soil medium, but they drain to the same soil, so once the roots get far-enough advanced, we deal with the same contaminated soil. *sigh*

Again, thanks for a great web experience.

I enjoyed reading the story about your home in Friday's New York Times.

I look forward to perusing your website, but wanted to thank you for "taking me away" for the brief time I was enveloped in your story.

Dear Dr. Ridge and Mr. Kilmer Purcell,

My wife and I will be moving to Hamilton, NY (about 50 miles west of you) next year when I start a job at Colgate University and tomorrow (Saturday, 2/28) we are planning on driving to that part of the state to look around at places to live next year, and thinking of taking a detour to Sharon Springs to look at your house.

I just read the article about you in the NY Times and discovered your blog and I wanted to say how phenomenal I think it is. I grew up in Vermont and after living in Cambridge, MA for 13 years (with interludes in Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, and Berkeley, CA) and then this year in Rochester, I've been terribly excited about moving to a really rural area and my wife and I have discussed the idea of raising some goats and living in an old farmhouse. Your story is a real inspiration to us!

I don't know if you'll have time to read this--I imagine you'll be swamped with e-mails after that article about your phenomenal life. But it said in your article that you don't mind "internet friends" dropping by, so I thought I would just send you this note in case you did have a chance to read it

Wonderful article in today's Times. I am a flutist, founder and artistic director of the Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival and summer resident of Springfield Center (15 min from Sharon Springs). I live on the UWS during the year and head of the Woodwind Department at Manhattan School of Music.

CCMF (www.cooperstownmusicfest.org) is in its 11th season. Our 2009 dates are Aug 2-23rd and I am just now finalizing venues, repertoire and artists. I have long been hoping to find an appropriate venue for a performance in Sharon Springs. It occurred to me while reading the article that there is a wealth of chamber music that was composed between 1802-1804 Might you be interested in having a program featuring works of the period this summer? Or something unrelated but fun? If so, please get back to me as soon as possible.

In any event, I'd love to meet you both.

Good Morning

Fun article

About the goats, a neighbor when I was growing up in WNY state raised goats,the excess milk he generously passed around the neighborhood, my brothers and I drank it and enjoyed it along with raw milk straight from the cows of another farmer.

Back to goats milk, my mother would often make stove top fudge using goats milk in place of cows milk, a taste and flavor like no other, plus when we collected black walnuts from a local farmers woodlot, they would be added in place of ordinary California walnuts.
Try it some time

Add a couple of bee hives for some more fun, my grandfathers hives kept the 'hood supplied with honey for years, plus all my cousins were taught how to "take the honey" by the time we were 12 years old.

Have fun in the country.

You are an inspiration. We've been 'back on land' in Angelica, Allegany County, NY (another sweet holdover from the past) since the 70's with time in Ithaca for careers and child educating. Now we return to our farming there with lavender, organic vegetables, and a pancake market stand using local grains, Winters we go south. Crop land is rented out for now. This is all pretty small time but your story is lighting a fire for us. Thanks for the jolt!

I'm not sure how this happened, but it appears you are living the life that me and my partner Eric were supposed to have.

Hello,
You guys are working hard and playing hard. i applaud you. enjoyed the tip of the iceberg article in today's NYT's.

Wonder if you could tell me about the two couches in the living room facing each other: clean lines, slant ends on back.
I would like to buy similar couch for my petite apartment. [Ed Note: They are Jonathan Adler sofas. ]

Dear Proprietors,

I've enjoyed my first visit to your Web site and look forward to your "How Too" bulletins. I hope to use many of them when my husband and I return to Ohio later this year, after a marvelous Fulbright year in Sri Lanka.

I have a suggestion based on my understanding of 19th century American life, and my experience living in rural Ohio. People were carefully frugal, and the needle arts were important in most households. By the 19th century there weren't many who spun and wove and sewed ALL the family clothes, but sewing was an important contribution to farm economy. You might consider adding sewing and needlework projects or kits to your store offerings; aprons have come back into fashion, for example, and a sturdy work apron is a treasure in the garden and the kitchen. As an avid needlewoman myself, I can also recommend hand crocheted linen mesh bags and hand knitted sweaters, throws, and rugs, which warmed the person in old houses that were innocent of insulation (as our home in Ohio was until last year). Some very fine weavers also made blankets and yardage for coats and jackets. You might consider talking with a weaving or knitting guild and even encouraging high quality standards with them--there is a resurgence of interest in sewing and knitting, but many people can't tell the difference between good work and poor. For many of us who enjoy these crafts, the quality shows in function, durability, design, and beauty.

Congratulations on your restoration and renewal of what appears to be a wonderful farm

I just want you to know who I am and how I came to place my order yesterday.

I am a retired CPA (just to give you some of my educational acumen) who actually graduated from UW with degrees in accounting and english literature. I was too old to be a Hippy - my life was far too conventional with a surgeon for a father and my mother who knew F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I usually buy the NY Times on Friday (and Wednesday for the food section) and saw the lovely article on Beekman. I bought it on my way home from a routine mamogram which turned into a nightmare day ending with the prognosis that I have breast cancer.

I loved the article and I love how you two are on such an incredible journey. And are such fascinating people.

That's all. Cancer has already given me a new attitude where, were I younger (I am 65) I would try to figure out what I could do to make life more interesting.

I ordered all the baby products - I have my first grandchild (2 weeks old) and I will continue to follow your lives as long as the information is available.

Thank you for reading this, if you did.

Dear Josh and Brent — I was delighted to see the NY Times articles on your paradise. As the author of more than 20 books on design and architecture and the author of a course in metaphysical healing, I feel great kinship with the intent and beauty of all you’ve created.
I’m wondering if you might have suggestions as to how I could organize a Creativity workshop in your vicinity or in connection with the Beekman Mansion. I’m at http://www.lauracerwinske.com and my bibliography at http://www.bluehairlady.com.

With congratulations and all best wishes.

We are sincerely grateful for everyone’s kind words. It’s not always easy keeping The Beekman going, but we’re determined to do so with your friendship and support. Thank you again. Happy, happy spring to everyone.

ONE THIRD DOWN

Sun, 1 Mar 2009 11:14:25 -0500

Dr. Brent Ridge now also contributes to the Huffington Post. This entry originally appeared in the Huffington Post on Feb 25th.

I have 60 or more reasons to be optimistic.

Given that:

1. I come from a fairly healthy gene pool
2. I know every secret to healthy aging thus far discovered
3. I apply this knowledge on a regular basis
4. Have previously declared in print that I want to live past the age of 100
5. I never lie (especially in print)

I like to believe that my life is only 1/3 over.

While people the world over seem to be mired in the mess we’ve collectively created (and it’s a pretty big one), I’ve already started laying the plan for what will inevitably come—the next 2/3 of my life.

I’ve always been a planner, and take a little smug pride in being self-sufficient (I think this is partly related to the fact that I wasn’t breast fed---thanks, mom!)

In kindergarten, my grandfather would give us a quarter each morning so that we could buy an ice cream after lunch. I knew even at the age of 5 that I did not need ice cream. What I needed was the exceptionally satisfying sound of that quarter hitting all the other coins at the bottom of my piggy bank. (Note: my grandfather made it well-known that when he was a young boy in the Depression, they never had money to buy ice cream.)

While my youth was spent doing odd jobs (baby sitting, mowing yards, taking care of sick animals), when it first became legal for me to join the workforce and pay taxes—at the age of 15 in North Carolina--I did! I bagged groceries from sun-up until sun-down every weekend, and when my check came every two weeks, I did not complain about the taxes being taken out nor did I find some sneaky way of not paying taxes at the end of the year (which seems to be a special talent of those who make more than a bag boy and of those who seek a job in government).

During the summers, I took whatever temp work could be found in the local factories. I tested hot water generators for Black & Decker, lifted heavy trays of batteries for Eveready, and packed powdered shrimp bisque into little bags for Knorr-Best Food (our family cat was especially affectionate toward me during this employment.) Incidentally, almost all the factories that I worked in have closed. When I return home, they are empty, hulking, corrugated monuments of my youth.

In high school I worked at McDonalds, and during the summer between my senior year and my freshman year in college, I worked at McDonalds 5:00am to 2:00pm and then went to a job in a factory from 3:00pm to 11:00pm.

By the start of college classes in the fall, I had saved enough money to cover my tuition and expenses. Many kids at that age are know-it-alls. I for sure knew one thing: a lifetime of working in a factory or behind the stoves at McDonalds is not all it’s cracked up to be. That’s a powerfully motivating lesson to learn.

You have probably guessed without me telling you that I worked my way through college. I could have asked my parents for money, but I was slightly embarrassed by the thought of it, so I didn’t. I slaved for that education, and, dammit, I own it. There’s a certain respect and gratitude that comes when you have to work so hard for something. In the end, you truly “get” what you paid for.

I then went on to medical school. Determined to not be saddled with a debt that would forever dictate my life, I did two things. I took out the maximum amount of federally subsidized loans available (the taxes I paid all those years covered these) and considered them to be my “emergency reserve”. I deposited them in extremely safe and conservative investment vehicles (far away from the over-promising reaches of the Madoffs and Stanfords of the world), and then took a job working 20 hours a week to cover my bills. It was hard, and I was perpetually exhausted, but the week after I received the degree, I paid back all of those loans and pocketed the interest that had accumulated, perhaps the first medical student in the history of modern medicine to graduate from medical school richer than when he matriculated.

I used that money to rent my first apartment in the Spanish Harlem section of NYC, a poor yet vibrant neighborhood surrounding Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital where I was completing my post-graduate training. When my mom came to help me move in, she was scared. To this day it is still the closest thing to “the developing world” that she has ever seen. (She doesn’t travel often.)

I lived in NYC on $36,000 a year. I could do this because I had no debt to pay, a nifty little fact that also enabled me to choose the specialty of medicine that I was most passionate about—geriatrics (of course this necessarily meant that I could not spend weekend nights in trendy bars, fancy restaurants, or rubbing elbows with the Hilton sisters, but these are hard choices we all have to make at some point in our lives)

After practicing medicine for several years, I decided it was time for change. I am still in awe of my colleagues who can either give so much of themselves emotionally each day without suffering consequence or have found a way to distance themselves without compromising care.

I couldn’t, so I sold out. I went to business school. The only thing that (slightly) diminished the great disappointment of my family was that my first job out of business school was working with Martha Stewart, a person whose work ethic is justifiably legendary. Together we established the Center for Living at Mount Sinai, dedicated to developing the models of care that will help us meet the future demands of our aging society. We helped bring awareness to the needs of family caregivers and helped bring good, practical information about leading a healthier life to the millions of people who come to Martha eager to learn about all things involved with “living”. I learned a lot from working there, too.

The global economic meltdown—which I intend to call “The Great Correction”--has temporarily thwarted my intentions of making the entire world healthier (I’m not Bill Gates after all) but has fortunately given me pause to think about the next 2/3 of my life…and to do a little planning.

I may reference what I learned in medical school, and the things I know from the world of business may make for some intriguing footnotes and sidebars, but I’m thinking the lesson that will best serve me were learned much earlier in life.

My grandparents, children of the Great Depression, would say things that probably are pertinent to the children of the Great Correction

A penny saved is a penny earned
Don’t count your chickens before they hatch
Too good to be true usually is
You can’t get something for nothing
Never trust to others what you can do for yourself
and
Don’t forget your roots

These are all truisms that we should admonish ourselves for having forgotten. Did these emerge from a simpler time? Probably. But perhaps in this age of derivative markets, bundled mortgages, buy now, pay later and Ponzi schemes, a period of simplicity is exactly what we all need in order to get us back on the right path.

60 more years is quite a long time, and I am quite optimistic that despite this year (and maybe the next) each of those years will be better.

BEHIND THE TIMES

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:18:17 -0500

Extra! Extra! The Beekman Farm is featured in the New York Times!

While we are out with the new baby goats basking in our 15 minutes, please enjoy the additional photos of The Beekman taken by fantastically talented photographer Stewart Cairns.

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 12:44:16 -0500

No one seems to know exactly how William and Joanna met, so I often wonder about the strange twists and series of random encounters and acquaintances that led them to one another, when six degrees of separation suddenly shoved to zero. What was it like for two lovers who were struggling to find their way in the revolutionized New World? Was William easily able to sweep Joanna right off of her feet with a promise of rural ease? Was it love at first sight or did affection slowly smolder until one day bursting into flames?

What little we know about the two comes from this a little story about their wedding from an 1885 book about Schoharie County:

After Judge Beekman had been in business a few years at Canajoharie, where he established a good reputation, he went to the Little Lakes (now Warren), to marry Joanna, a daughter of Nicholas Lowe. He called on Rev. Christian Diedrich Pick, or Peek, as written by his family, to tie the knot, who took with him Peter Young and William Seeber, Esquires, to witness the ceremony. After the bird was caged, Beekman asked the Dominie what he must pay him. "Well," said the good man, "it is a pretty muddy time," and extending an open palm, he added, "you can put in until the hand closes." One, two, three silver dollars rested in the palm, and the groom paused to notice the effect; the muscles began slightly to move, and the fall of the fourth dollar caused the fingers to twitch and contract a little, but it was not until the fifth dollar dropped on the palm that the joints relaxed and the fingers closed around the lucre.

Did William spend two years building his mansion before carrying his bride across the threshold or did they spend hours dreaming over every detail and planning their lives together?

I like to imagine that the two of them wrote love poems to one another in languid, quilled lettering where the “s” looks like an “f”. We will find one in the eaves or beneath a floorboard one day, yellow and brittle, the language so flowery and poetic that it seems foreign to the modern reader.

Perhaps they carved their initials in one of the trees on the farm, now carefully hidden by two centuries of growth.

All of this is speculation, of course, but one thing is certain. They loved the home they built enough to want to be buried there. This heart-shaped rock marks their final resting place beneath a grassy knoll covered with lilacs and bleeding hearts. They sway gently in the breeze.

Did you create a special Valentine? We’d love to see it! Share it with us (and the 82,000 other people who have found this blog so far). Declare your love to the world!

WHAT GOES AROUND, GOES AROUND

Mon, 9 Feb 2009 08:11:17 -0500

When we first bought the Beekman Farm, it was with the intention that we would make it biodynamic, meaning that everything that we use on the farm, is someone how derived from the farm. Crops become nourishment for us and the animals. Manure becomes fertilizer. Rain water becomes irrigation. Fallen branches become heat.

While becoming fully biodynamic will be an outcome years in the making, the decision to give goats the run of the Beekman land has certainly made the process more interesting. Who knew goat milk had so many amazing uses?

We first started making soap for our own use, then to give out to guests, and then for Christmas gifts. The demand became so great that Beekman 1802 was born.

Each fall, we stop milking the goats so that the cycle of life will continue.

And this week we welcomed the first five new arrivals of Spring ’09.
Say ‘hi’ to Thandy, Troy and Trudy. (Click here to watch a video of 2009’s first triplets) Keep your eye on our homepage for more birth announcements...They’re coming faster than we can blog.

With the freshening of the goats, the milk once again starts flowing, This means that we will finally get to make more fresh yogurt for breakfast. Learn more at HowToo

It also represents a new phase in the development of Beekman 1802. This summer we will launch Beekman 1802 Provisions, artisanal food products derived from the Beekman Farm. The first product will be our signature goat milk cajeta, (a rich Mexican caramel sauce). Can’tcha just taste it already?

But perhaps the provision we are most excited about is the cheese! We are preparing a savory, aromatic hard cheese as well as a washed-rind variety. But cheese, like great soap, is part science and part art. We’ll be sharing the development process (successes and failures) as the season progresses.

FODDER FOR FIRESIDE CHATS

Tue, 3 Feb 2009 08:54:26 -0500

THERE IS SOME VERY FINE READING TO BE HAD IN THE SEED CATALOGS that are piling up on the coffee table. The catalogs always prompt deep, philosophical questioning like whether “tolerant to zone 3” might possibly mean “it will do just fine in zone 5”

But there are some other books that have captured our interest this winter while we’re waiting for the ground to thaw. Below are a few of our favorites. Hopefully they’ll keep your fingers busy until they can actually dig in the dirt:

If winter has left you temporarily insane and you’ve forgotton about the pleasures of the garden, then a good place for you to start reigniting your passion is with Diane Ackerman’s Cultivating Delight. She ruminates on her passion for gardening while recuperating from an accident. I especially love the plant inventory she includes as an addendum, and it has inspired us to commit to doing the same for the Beekman flower gardens this year.

We do our best to appreciate each season to its fullest on the farm, but even we will admit that after the first awe-inspiring cascades of snow and ice, we have to look harder to appreciate the wonders of the winter terrain. If you have ever spent an entire weekend watching Animal Planet or occasionally become addicted to YouTube videos featuring cute animals doing funny things, you will be as enthralled as we were with Bernd Heinrich’s Winter World: the ingenuity of animal survival. It gave us much more insight into our efforts to identify the various animal tracks that dart across the fields of the farm.

If you are one of the three or four people left on Earth who have not read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, put this on the very top of your winter reading list. It will put all of the toil, sweat and tears of the growing season to come into complete perspective.

As one of the upcoming monthly prizes in our Garden Party celebration, HarperCollins will be giving away a complete set of books that no foodie, gardener or outdoorsy-type’s book shelf should be without.

Until then, share some of your favorite winter gardening reads below. Our night table pile is getting a little slim.

AND THE REST IS HISTORY

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:49:46 -0500

People often ask how we came to be at the Beekman. In the very first blog entry for BEEKMAN 1802, I wrote rather poetically about the farm’s Siren call, but left out some of the important backstory.

There were two more Sirens---named Doug and Garth.

They moved to Sharon Springs from NYC in the early 1990’s and opened a successful café. At one point they looked at possibly purchasing The Beekman, which was at it’s lowest point of despair. Here’s a picture they took of it in the mid 1990’s when it was abandoned.

Wisely, they passed. They had even bigger dreams. In 1996 they found themselves in “ruins” - literally, and in the good way. They had purchased the oldest remaining structure in the village of Sharon Springs, The American Hotel.

The three story inn was built in 1847 by Nicholas la Rue of Esperance, NY, and even at it’s lowest point of decay, it was a beautiful presence on Main Street.

After several years of backbreaking work (Doug and Garth did much of the restoration work themselves,) the hotel reopened for business and is now on the National Registry of Historic Places

The restaurant is wonderfully orchestrated by chef Lee Woolver, and during the summer months when the Glimmerglass Opera (the summer home of the Met) is in town, reservations are hard to come by. It has won numerous awards and has been featured on Rachel Ray.

Many a Friday and Saturday after a hard day of farm work you’ll find us belly up at the beautiful copper-covered bar. Certainly William Beekman had many a “business meeting” in exactly the same spot.

We were staying at The American Hotel the weekend when we first saw the For Sale sign by the front gates of The Beekman, which, lucky for us, had been meticulously and lovingly restored by Eric and Pat Selch. Once Doug and Garth knew that the farm had her hooks in us, they did a mighty fine job of helping to reel us in.

We now count them among our closest friends.

The American is now partnering with us and Landreth Seeds to help throw the “Oldest, Largest, Garden Party in America’s History.” All summer Chef Woolver will be featuring dishes using the produce from The Beekman Heirloom Vegetable Garden. And on September 26th they’ll be hosting a Harvest Feast straight out of the nineteenth century with the Beekman harvest. We’ll have more details about that in the coming weeks, but if you want to stay at the American, it might be best to make a reservation now.

We hope that you’ll join us for a weekend of harvest fun, we’d love to meet you all in person.

ONE MUST HAVE A MIND FOR WINTER

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:08:39 -0500

One must have a mind of winter

To regard the frost and the boughs of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time to behold the junipers shagged with ice, the spruces rough in the distant glitter of the January sun;

And not to think of any misery in the sound of the wind, in the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land full of the same wind that is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow, and, nothing himself, beholds

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

--a favorite poem by Wallace Stevens, and one of the inspirations for our Month of January soap...

THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:48:36 -0500

As more snow descended on The Beekman, and the gusty winds and the overall grayness combined to obliterate the views of the rolling farmland hills, I started to feel suddenly trapped by the elements. Shrouded and swaddled so tightly that I couldn’t move.

Note: I have a long aversion to “entrapment” of any sort. Ethan and Mary and Frank and April, Holden, Lily, Nick, and even Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice were all characters whose plight resonated with me (extra credit for the reader if you can identify all of these references.)

As we huddled in the kitchen by the fire, both doors to the room closed to keep in the heat, I gave some serious consideration to how the Beekmans did it.

The house has 7 fireplaces. Here are just a few:

The living room

The kitchen

The dining room

A bedroom

But we all know that fireplaces are just for looks, right? The heat ours generates does not extend much beyond 2 feet, even though two of the fireplaces at The Beekman still retain their original efficient Rumford design. I like to think that mandatory winter closeness was what made William and Joanne’s union so strong (and fertile.)

While the house has been wonderfully updated with modern methods of heating, we come to it with some post-sensibilities – like how much is it going to cost to heat the main house this winter and what is our personal toll on the environment by doing so? These are the things that are the real burdens on our contentment, not the blustery wind, the snow drifts or the frigid temperatures. We would like for The Beekman to become “greener” over time, by installing wind and geothermal energy supplies. But this takes a major investment. And to save enough capital for those sorts of future improvements it’s best – both for our wallets and the planet – that we don’t spend it all on heating oil and natural gas now. This is the time of year when we frequent the Beekman a little less than usual, and for shorter periods, all for the sake of good environmental and economic stewardship.

But the farm has stood atop it’s hill for over two centuries and has weathered winter seasons far worse than this one without us being ever-present. It will be there every time we return.

And true to our “seasonal living” motto, we can’t appreciate the joys of a season unless we concurrently experience its sorrows. After all, tomorrow is a another day, the sun’ll come out, and silver white winters will melt into spring (another opportunity for extra credit, folks.)

To help celebrate one of our favorite fun seasonal activities, check out our HowToo blog this week for a lesson in Snow Cream.

A CONCERT IN THE GRAND HALLWAY

Thu, 1 Jan 2009 07:44:40 -0500

AT:

As one of the most prominent men in the area, William Beekman’s grand home would have certainly been the setting for many wonderful celebrations.

When our friend Karen Cookson, a member of the Sharon Springs Chamber of Commerce, asked if we would consider opening our home for a New Year’s Eve party, we felt certain that William and Joanna would have wanted us to say yes.

So we did.

Grammy-winning chamber jazz musician Charles Dowd and Tracy Freeze have performed around the world and filled The Beekman to the rafters with amazing music for the evening. Now we know that the house has wonderful acoustics.

To complement the garland we had strung for the holidays we made votives out of cloved oranges to give the concert a warm glow.
See how we did this in this week’s HowToo blog

Knowing that such events are better left to the hands of professionals, local caterers from A Taste of Europe, created a wonderful menu that included dill salmon mousse, vegetable terrine, free range eggs with caviar and sundried tomato cheesecake among other tasty bites.

Though the thermometer read -6 degrees, the snowy evening was filled with warmth and laughter. We met many new friends with brilliant talents that we hope to share with you in 2009.

As I’m typing this entry, Auld Lang Syne is still wafting through my head, and I’m blissfully aware that tonight’s dreams will be sweetened by champagne. It seems like an appropriate time to think about what dreams we have for Beekman, for our lives, and for all of our readers and customers over the next year. To all of those dreams, we raise a glass and extend to everyone our own “cup of kindness”.

To learn about the New Year’s Eve traditions of 1804, check out what Mary Beekman has to say.

BOXING DAY AT THE BEEKMAN

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 14:33:41 -0500

AT:

The tradition of Boxing Day, traditionally celebrated on December 26, began in England during the Middle Ages. Some historians say that the holiday developed because servants were required to work on Christmas Day and were given the following day off to compensate. As servants would leave to visit their families, the lord and lady of the house would present them with gift boxes, often containing leftovers and castoffs from the prior day’s celebration.

When we first moved to Sharon Springs, we were eager to start our own traditions. We thought that a holiday party would be nice, but after consulting the local social calendar we learned that many of the prime holiday spots had already been spoken for. There are incredibly wonderful annual holiday parties in Sharon Springs scheduled from Thanksgiving straight through Christmas afternoon.

So, without much time to think, we staked our claim on Boxing Day.

Having a party the day after a major holiday presents a bit of a conundrum. By this point people have had just about all they can take of gingerbread, egg nog, fancy Christmas sweaters, and good will toward men.

We wanted to do something more casual. A Raclette.

What’s a Raclette? Well, it’s both the name of a cheese, the method by which it’s cooked, and the term used for the entire meal that includes the cheese. Think fondue, but less liquid-y.

Years ago, Josh’s mother surprised him with a Raclette grill as a present. He’d enjoyed his first Raclette in Switzerland during the obligatory post college backpacking trip. For years we’ve hosted and attended raclette parties in New York City using the Raclette grill.

But for our Boxing Day at the Beekman Raclette Party we decided to employ an even more traditional cheese-melting method than a Raclette grill. Instead, we melt it the old fashioned way - on the hearth.

We chose a flat piece of blue slate stone and placed it on the kitchen hearth.

A 1/2 wheel of French Raclette cheese is then placed on the stone with the cut edge closest to the fire.

As the edge melts, the molten cheese is scraped away (we use a wide painters edging knife) and then poured over boiled potatoes and fresh baked baguettes.

The meal is accompanied by a sprinkle of paprika and pickled vegetables. The pickled carrots, green tomatoes, string beans and garlic cloves are all from this year’s garden, as were the potatoes used under the melted cheese.

While we serve the Raclette itself with the traditional Riesling, we chose to serve small glasses of hot Glogg to our guests as an aperitif as they arrived in from the cold. Glogg is a hot spiced Swedish drink made from red wine spiced with cinnamon sticks, cloves, citrus peel, cardamom, and sugar. For an extra kick of warmth, vodka is added just before dipping in the ladle.

To serve the glogg, a few raisins and almonds to the bottom of the glass before filling.

We finished off the evening with lemon coconut cupcakes filled with lemon curd, a delicious chocolate pecan pie (sent to us as a gift all the way from Michigan), and an exceptionally moist spike cake made by Farmer John. How lucky are we to have a farmer who also owns a Bundt pan?

If you’re throwing a New Years Party this week, be sure to check out the latest Nepenth blog entry for an entertaining and informative look at champagne. And Mary Beekman has an historic recipe for her favorite “New Years Cookey.”