Josh Kilmer-Purcell's Blog, page 26

The Perfect Sharon Springs Summer Weekend Getaway Itinerary

We’ve run into so many people around the country who tell us that Sharon Springs is on their “bucket list.” So we decided to make it a little easier for you to cross it off.

We know we’re a little off-the-beaten path. We’re not listed in many guidebooks. And as wonderful as Sharon Springs is, there isn’t always enough going on to fill a weekend. (Unless you just want to catch up on reading, nap, and chatter with locals.) But we do have many amazing nearby places to visit that will fill a summer weekend with amazing memories.

Below are some of our picks for making a weekend out of visiting Sharon Springs. (You can find even more ideas at Schoharie County Tourism )

Summer Attractions:

Beekman 1802 Mercantile & Farm Tours, Sharon Springs – Yes, we’re putting ourselves first on the list. But we do hope you’ll come visit the original Beekman 1802 Mercantile at 187 Main Street in Sharon Springs. And also check to see if there is a Beekman 1802 Farm Tour on the weekend you’re coming to tow.

The Farmers Museum in Cooperstown, Cooperstown – This is one of our favorite places to roam around! With dozens historic outbuildings, you can watch blacksmiths, pet animals, and learn all about 19th century farm & rural life.

Glimmer glass Festival, Cooperstown – If you love Tanglewood or Jacob’s Pillow, you won’t want to miss Glimmerglass Festival. World-class opera and musicals, in a beautiful setting.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown – This is famous enough that we don’t even need to tell you how great it is.

Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown – Perhaps one of the most famous small breweries in America. Take a tour, eat at their amazing cafe, or see if there’s a cool concert going on. (Sometimes you can camp on site.)

Howe Caverns, Howe – This is something you really have to see to believe. Take an elevator 15 stories below the earth to tour a cathedral-like series caverns. You can even ride a boat on an underground river!

Spring House Spa, Sharon Springs – Need a break during your visit? We’ve gotten the best massages of our life, right here in Sharon Springs.

Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown – Amazing permanent and rotating art collections. The New York Times says it has “a collection any museum in the world should envy.”

Hyde Hall, Cooperstown – Tour nearly 50 rooms in what is considered the finest example of neoclassic country mansions anywhere in the United States.

Glimmerglass State Park, Cooperstown – Swim in Lake Otsego, hike the trails, and camp.

 

Where to Stay:

The American Hotel, Sharon Springs – Classic, historic, friendly, famous.

The Nash, Sharon Springs – Hip, modern, stylish, cool.

The New York House, Sharon Springs – B&B, cozy, homey, quaint.

The Otsega Resort Hotel, Cooperstown – luxury, lakeside, resort, top-class.

The Inn at Cooperstown, Cooperstown – Quaint, luxury, historic, classic.

The Meadowlark Inn, Cooperstown – Family, friendly, fun, inexpensive.

The Inn at Cobleskill , Cobleskill – Family, bowling, pool, budget.

 

Where to Eat:

There are a ton of great restaurants in the area. These are just a few of our go-to favorites.

The American Hotel Restaurant, Sharon Springs  – Fine fare, seafood, steak, classic.

Black Cat Cafe, Sharon Springs – Lunch, gourmet sandwiches, baked goods, Beekman Blaak & Mac.

204 Main, Sharon Springs – Fresh, modern, innovative, Farm-to-Table.

Sharon Tavern, Sharon – Local gathering place, fresh, homemade, bountiful.

Blue Mingo Grill – On the water, innovative dishes, great bar, summer fun.

Justine’s, Cobleskill – Italian-American, big plates, great value, friendly.

Cantina De Salsa, Cherry Valley – Fresh Mexican, authentic, margaritas, fun.

Cafe Ommegang , Cooperstown – Belgium menu, gourmet fries, amazing beers.

Rose and Kettle, Cherry Valley – Seasonal, local ingredients, live music.

Alex’s Bistro, Cooperstown – Modern, renowned chef, innovative cuisine.

Hawkeye Bar & Grill, Cooperstown – On the lake, best burgers, fine dining, at the historic Otesaga Resort.

Paper Boys

We’ve often written about our friends at Adelphi.   Not only are they just up the hill from Beekman 1802 Mercantile, but they’re world-famous artisans in their own right.

Photographer Sarah Pezdek Smith and fashion designer Stephen F  joined us for a day of role playing in the paper studio.

 

 

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Postcard from France

We hadn’t really taken a vacation that wasn’t somehow related to business since we purchased the farm in 2007. We love our lives on the farm & with our Beekman 1802 Team, so it’s not like we ever really dread going to “work” every day.

But last year when our friend Angela, who was the director of The Fabulous Beekman Boys, announced that she was getting married in Paris this spring, we couldn’t wait to Repondez S’il Vous Plait. And then earlier this year Josh’s 91-year-old Uncle Arthur, who lives in the South of France, fell ill and needed to be moved into a full time care facility. We decided to make one longer trip to help his uncle and celebrate with Angela.

In the spirit of old time vacation slide-shows with neighbors, (do you remember dreading those as children?) we thought we’d share a few pictures from our visit….

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Kitchen Table Business School

the following interview was excerpted from the phenomenal business book, Shops that Pop!

 

To look at Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge and the company they’ve built, Beekman 1802, you might think they have been blessed by the gods of good business fortune. Seven years after its founding, they have indeed been blessed, not by accident or luck, but by hard work, diligence and scrupulous attention to detail. You see, Josh and Brent are just like you; they went out on a limb and invested everything they had with no alternative, but to make their business work.

 

Beekman 1802 was born of necessity. The two were riding high up to 2008, with well-paying jobs in New York City that afforded them the opportunity to buy an historic 60-acre farm in upstate New York for weekend getaways. However, in the same month both men lost those high-paying jobs to the recession and had to figure out how to keep their farm.

 

“We didn’t know what we were going to do,” Brent said. “Then a local farmer came to us and said he was losing his place and asked if he could use ours for his herd of goats. So we were faced with no income, a million dollar mortgage, and 80 goats to feed.

 

We started Googling what we could make with goat’s milk and the one thing we thought would be easiest to get started in was goats milk soap. We apprenticed with a local soap maker who taught us how to make soap, started using it, and discovered it was amazing for the skin. So that was what we decided to launch with – one product, natural goat’s milk soap.”

 

With no plans to open a store, they took their soap to New York City and cold-called on a number of luxury stores on Fifth Avenue and got orders from Takashimaya (since closed) and Henri Bendel. But success had its price. When Anthropologie placed an order for 24,000 bars of soap and the men were still hand wrapping every bar of soap in the hallway of their farmhouse, they had to find a local building with enough space to run their wrapping and shipping operation.

 

In that new location, they had a small 10 by 20 foot space that could work as a storefront. “We decided if we are going to be here all day wrapping and shipping, we might as well have a little store front where we could sell something if people came in off the street,” Brent explains. And so Beekman 1802 Mercantile was born.

 

Though the Mercantile had humble beginnings, the team had a vision to make the storefront special. “Having worked with Bendel and Anthropologie and having a lot of experience shopping in NYC, we wanted to create an experience that kept the folksy, homespun nature of our company but gave it an urban polish.” So with their urban sophisticate style, but still on a limited budget, they crafted tables from aluminum saw horses and rough-hewn planks and installed industrial lighting from Home Depot.

 

Fast forward to 2016. Winning The Amazing Race in 2012 enabled them to pay off their mortgage. They also were able to invest in buying a property on Main Street in the one-stoplight town that is Sharon Springs. Today’s flagship store was established, along with a vibrant internet and media presence that includes publishing, blogs, a reality television show, and appearances on the TV shopping channel Evine. Both Josh and Brent came to entrepreneurship after forging successful careers in media, so media savvy was part of the skill set they brought to their enterprise.

 

Today’s Beekman 1802 Mercantile is an eclectic mix of products,from the brand’s own goat’s milk products, to home décor, lighting, fashion, and gifts. Brent explains, “Our goal in creating this Mercantile was to create a destination location, a real flagship store, that people visiting the area have to see, like when you are in Vermont, you go to Orvis or in Maine, you go to L.L. Bean.”

 

And the plan was not only to draw visitors to shop in their store, but to bring folks from all over to their village where all their neighbors would benefit. “So much of the community helped us when we were starting out. We didn’t know how to run a farm. We didn’t know how to make soap. We had to rely on people in our community and that is why community is such an important part of our brand.” So important, indeed, that rather than call them customers or guests, as Target famously does, to the Beekman 1802 family those who connect with the brand are called “neighbors.” The flagship store has also spawned four “pop-up” shops in Corning and Cooperstown, New York, Manhattan and currently in Boston to bring folks from these cities into their growing community of neighbors.

 

Brent offers some powerful advice for other retailers starting out like they did a mere seven years ago or for those established retailers eager to grow. First, you have to truly and uniquely distinguish your store. “You have to differentiate yourself in your community and make your place a destination for people with a unique experience and carefully curated products. People are shopping on Amazon, where they can find anything and it’s all cheaper. You have to offer something different and in a different way.”

 

Next, Brent says you have to be hungry. “Desperation is the best motivator. We literally had nothing but this property. We had to get it done. Otherwise you are not going to be willing to make the personal sacrifices you need to make to get a business off the ground.”

 

Finally, the Beekman Boys are uniquely blessed with media experience and social media savvy. They know that the most powerful social media is not what they post on their Facebook or Twitter feeds, but what their growing network of neighbors and friends post on theirs.

 

“People are craving personal attention, touch and feel and it’s fed by social media. That is why we do personal appearances all across the country, so we can have face-to-face interaction with our neighbors. Here is how it works on social media. We post a note on social media that we are doing an appearance and people come out to our event. They get a hug, take a picture, and then post it on their own Facebook page. It’s documented on social media and goes in a virtuous circle. All their friends see it and learn that Beekman 1802 is the type of brand where you can go and get a hug.”

 

That “virtuous circle” has done more for the company than hundreds – even thousands – of outbound posts. While NASDAQ calls Beekman 1802 one of the “fastest growing lifestyle brands in the country,” Brent bristles at that label. “We think of ours as a ‘living brand.’ Everything we put out there is inspired by the life we are living.” That is the authentic heart and soul of Beekman 1802.

 

 

In a recent retailer seminar, one of the participants – a more mature man with a long-established business – cried out in absolute frustration, “But what if I don’t want to do all these things you are telling me to do? What if I just want to stay like I am?” This man expressed the feelings that were running rampantly, but silently, throughout the entire seminar audience. Everybody felt uncomfortable, put upon, and challenged by the need to change his or her business. The retailers in the audience knew in their hearts that a dramatic transformation had to occur to keep their retail stores in business, not to mention to make them grow and thrive in the new challenging retailing environment, but the kind of transformation they needed to undertake was a very difficult thing to come to terms with. Nothing is harder than stepping out into the unknown, moving beyond the way you have done business for years, the store that you have known, that you built, that reflects your dreams and aspirations, and change it into something else.

 

Well, you really don’t have to do it. You can decide that your business is good right where it is, doing what it has always done before, in the same way it has always been done. The downside of that decision, however, may well be closing your doors for good, because the retailing world is changing and your customers are changing and if you don’t change with them, you will be left behind.

 

To get your own copy of Shops that POP!  click here

 

How to Glamp

Beekman 1802 partnered with Country Inns & Suites to re-design their hotel amenities (that’s how our new White Water Collection was created!).  It’s a great partnership because we both agree that everyone deserves (and needs!) a little bit of luxury in their day

To celebrate the launch they constructed a luxury glamping (glamour + camping) experience right here on Beekman Farm.  A lucky family from Duluth, MN, won the opportunity to stay on the farm.

Take a look at what they built:

 

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And here’s a pdf of exact blueprints of how you can build your own glamping tent!

 

 

Glamping

Seizing Beauty

 

Paulette Tavormina’s photographs are held in museum, corporate, and private collections, and have been exhibited in Paris, London, Moscow, Lugano, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Miami, Palm Beach, and Chicago. As a commercial photographer, she has collaborated with The Fabulous Beekman Boys on three cookbooks, including the critically acclaimed The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook and has photographed for National Geographic and The New York Times. Previously, Tavormina was a prop and food stylist in Hollywood whose work appeared in seven feature films, including Nixon, The Perfect Storm, and The Astronaut’s Wife. She lives and works in in New York City.

 

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Autographed copies of Seizing Beauty are available in the Mercantile.  Click here

 

Garden Party 2016

Here is the current schedule of events.  Please check back between now and Memorial Day weekend for new additions!

 

Saturday
9:30am

Tours begin of Beekman Farm.  For ticket information, click here

9:30am-5:00pm

Chris Ottman will demonstrate how he creates his popular Cherry Valley Tincicles. Demonstrations all day in front of Cobbler and Company.

10:00am

Start browsing over 100 vendors selling seeds, plants, crafts and food

10:00–Main Stage in Chalybeate Park 

Farm to Facial talk – Celebrity aesthetician Eileen Harcourt helps us create some of our beauty and skincare formulations and has introduced Beekman 1802 to her fashion and entertainment clients.  She’ll share recipes for beauty treatments using home-grown ingredients. Get your seat early.  One lucky participant will receive one of Eileen’s amazing facial treatments as part of the demo.

11 noon – Main Stage in Chalybeate Park

Forest Healing talk –Join Trista Haggerty, founding director of the Earth MentoringInstitute, aka Hawk Circle in Cherry Valley, NY, as she talks about the many ways the forest facilitates healing. From potent tree remedies to forest bathing, you will learn how you can benefit greatly from the woods around you as a way to heal wounds, relieve stress and

counteract anxiety.

HIGH NOON at Chalybeate Park

Become an honorary citizen of Sharon Springs!  Mayor Doug Plummer will lead a “swearing in”  ceremony.  Line up to shake his hand and get your authentic certificate of citizenship

1:00pm – Main Stage in Chalybeate Park

How to Save Seeds–Join Ken Greene, the founder of the Hudson Valley Seed Library, and learn how your garden can keep giving season after season after season

2:00pm – Main Stage in Chalybeate Park

String Gardens— Josh and Brent will demonstrate how to make hanging string gardens, bringing one of the features in the Spring/Summer Beekman 1802 Almanac to life. Josh and Brent will be at the Mercantile all day signing copies of the new magazine

 

 

3:00pm – Main Stage in Chalybeate Park

Cooking demo by Sharon Springs’ best celebrity cook, Rose Marie Trapani demonstrating how to make fried zeppole.  Get there early because she usually has samples!!

 

 

Sunday is for Shopping and Strolling
10:00am-5:00pm

Start browsing over 100 vendors selling seeds, plants, crafts and food

 

Additional info:

Hours:

All vendors will be set up and ready to greet you by 10:00am and will be open for business until 5pm

Parking information: 

Parking is at the Sharon Springs Central School on the corner of State Route 10 and US 20 (just behind the Stewarts Station).  Shuttle buses will run on the half-hour throughout the day.  Additional parking available at Sunnycrest Orchard on US 10.  Shuttles are also available from this location. Street parking is discouraged on festival days for safety reasons

Garden of Delights

Our business has two hearts.  The first is, of course, Beekman Farm, and the second is our little Mercantile on Main Street in Sharon Springs, NY.

We always want customers to see something that inspires them in the store—even if they don’t buy a single thing.

We re-set the store 5 times a year—each season and Christmas.  Like any small retail business we have a very limited budget for coming up with store displays, but we think that makes us more creative.

Even if you are on the other side of the world, you can a take a look around our Spring theme, Garden of Delights

 

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visit the online version of the Beekman 1802 Mercantile by clicking here

 

 

 

 

What’s GMO?

 

What is GMO?

Genetic modification involves combining genes from different species. The procedure, which disrupts the precise orchestration of thousands of genes that have evolved over millennia in the normal plant’s genome, is highly mutagenic. Generally the modification introduces bacterial genes for drug resistance along with strong promoters to express the foreign proteins at high levels in all parts of the plant.

GM technology has been around for the past 20 years, and today, 70-80% of the foods we eat in the United States contain ingredients that have been genetically modified.

 

Why have GMO crops proliferated?

Quite simply, the population of the US and the rest of the world continues to grow to the point that traditional agriculture alone could not support the nutritional needs. One in eight people among the world’s growing population of seven billion do not have enough to eat, and safe and effective methods of food production, like crops produced through GMO technology, can help us feed the hungry and malnourished in developing nations around the world.

GM technology allows farmers to use fewer chemicals, such as pesticides, and can require less water, which helps farmers keep the production costs down (which is why there’s so much cheap food)  GMO crops also enable farmers to utilize more environmentally friendly planting techniques that cut down on soil erosion and greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Why so corny?

By far, the most genetically modified crop on the face of the Earth is corn.  In fact, it is almost impossible to get corn that does not exhibit some sort of modification.  Corn is vulnerable to many pests and disease and requires a lot of nutrients to grow which made it a perfect subject for the development of GM technology.  As a result of genetic modification, corn became cheaper and cheaper to grow.  This made corn syrup cheaper and cheaper to produce.  And this is why you see corn syrup as a main ingredient in so many of the packaged foods that you consume.  It’s a cheap “filler” substance.

 

What’s the downside?

Many of the most influential regulatory agencies and organizations that study the safety of the food supply, including the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, Health Canada, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Academy of Sciences, have found genetically modified food ingredients are safe and there are no negative health effects associated with their use.

However, the only human GM feeding study ever published showed that the foreign genes inserted into GM food crops can transfer into the DNA of our gut bacteria.  So from a scientific standpoint, we don’t actually know what harm GM food might pose to us in the future, and as of now the FDA has absolutely no GMO safety testing requirements.

 

And none of them are heirlooms!

At Beekman 1802 we love our heirloom varieties of vegetables.  While they may be harder to grow because they have not been modified to perfection, we think it’s important that home gardeners in particular (who don’t have the burden of feeding the world), lead the charge in helping to maintain biodervisity and preserving the natural existence of vegetation.

 

Target on board

As many of you know, we started developing a whole line of food products with Target last year called Beekman 1802 FarmPantry

Target requires that any company making the claim of using non-GMO ingredients gets verified by an independent third-party analysis.

We are so proud that all of these products in the Beekman 1802 FarmPanty have earned the official non-GMO Project organization seal.

 

Five Pepper Salsa

Heirloom Recipe Smokey Tomato Ketchup

Organic Blueberry Thrill Maple Balsamic Dressing

Organic Caramelized Garlic & Peppercorn Dressing

Organic Garden Goodness Salsa

Organic Horseradish Root Cocktail Sauce

Organic Rosemary Sprig Balsamic Dressing

Organic Lick Your Fingers BBQ Ketchup

Harvest Season Turkey Brine

Herb Garden Spice Trio

Fire Roasted Chipotle Salsa

Green Chile Salsa Verde

To find the Target location nearest you that stocks the Beekman 1802 FarmPantry, click here

 

 

Chalk It Up To…

 

Beginning the first of May when you go into a Target store, you are going to see a whole new look in the grocery department.  The Beekman 1802 Farm Pantry be installed in its permanent home at the head of the pasta sauce aisle (the same location in every store in America!), and throughout the grocery aisle you’ll see the handiwork of artists Max + Johnna Holmgren

How and why did you start your company?

We started in Bear Fox Chalk in 2011 after being asked to create a chalk menu and falling in love with the medium.

 

Do you work exclusively in chalk? If so, why that as a medium as opposed to ink or paint?

Most of commissions our chalk (hence our name), but we have created illustrations in pen and ink and murals in paint as well. Back when we first started hardly anyone was doing chalk work so it really set us apart from other companies. The beauty of chalk is that a installation can stay up for as long as year or be erased after only one day.

 

How “permanent” are you works?

Some of our pieces are regular chalk and some are chalk markers or chalk pastels and permanent to the touch.

 

 

What’s the most ambitious/elaborate project you’ve done (if you have a photo of that to share, that would be great)

It’s hard to pick just one project, but we’ve created several really large murals just for fun in our studio that took 30 – 40 hours to create. The most elaborate commission was probably last summer for Caribou Coffee with two 8′ x 8′ installations that were done on site in front of live crowds. We possibly have a couple projects happening this year that we can’t announce yet, but will be by far the largest pieces we’ve ever taken on.

 

 

How long did it take you to do the Beekman 1802 Farm Pantry logo you created for the Target project?

The logo that you see in time lapse video took around two hours to complete.

 

 

You work with really large clients now, but can people still contact you for small projects like their weddings?

We no longer provide wedding services, but we still create custom pieces for people to hang in their homes. We will be putting up prints, pennants, and some patches on website this year as well!

 

 

For the home crafter, what are some of the best resources (brand of chalkboard paint, best deal on chalk, etc) and the one lesson you’ve learned from all of your work with chalk that will save a novice endless frustration

We haven’t found much of a difference between any of the chalkboard paints and there are great deals at any home improvement stores usually. The same goes for chalk and we really like Maxon chalk “markers” (more like pastels). If you are reusing a painted wall over and over, we recommend using cleaning or baby wipes to really clean the surface. Works a lot better than a wet rag!

 

 

See the time-lapsed video of the creation of the Beekman 1802 Farm Pantry sign:

http://beekman1802.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Beekman-1.mp4

 

 

Find the Target store closest to you with the Beekman 1802 Farm Pantry.  Click here