Josh Kilmer-Purcell's Blog, page 53

2014 Mortgage Lifter Winners!

**Please help us Kick-Start next year’s fund by picking up more Mortgage Lifter Sauces today**

Please join us in congratulating the first recipients of the Beekman 1802 Mortgage Lifter Lifts! (Read more about them at their profile links below)

$10,000 Mortgage Lifter Lift: Climbing Tree Farm in New Lebanon, NY

$1088 Mini-Mortgage Lifter Lift #1: Greyrock Farm in Cazenovia, NY

$1088 Mini-Mortgage Lifter Lift #2: Babe & Sage Farm in Gordon, Georgia

$1088 Mini-Mortgage Lifter Lift #3: Mud Lake Farm in Hudsonville, MI

We look forward to seeing them all GROW! We’d like to say how much we admired ALL of the hard work demonstrated by every nominee this year.  We hope next year we’re able to give even bigger “Lifts” to even more farms, and encourage this year’s entrants to re-apply this year. There were many worthy candidates.

We thank each of our judges for helping us identify farms that have the potential to be leaders, innovators and an inspiration to other small farms around the world

And most importantly, we thank ALL OF YOU for supporting the Mortgage Lifter Project with every jar of sauce you buy

Here are what our esteemed panel of judges had to say about Climbing Tree Farm:

Susan Littlefield, Mortgage Lifter judge

“…a perfect example of what makes this country strong!  Working from the ground up helping not only your family but so many! I see you as a great resource for so many that want to get started in agriculture but are unsure how.”

Jennifer Fahy, Mortgage Lifter judge

Climbing Tree Farm, New Lebanon, NY: This is just a great new farmer story:

“We moved here with three off farm jobs, no barn, no tractor, no permanent fencing, a gutted house, 500 chickens, 12 sheep, a 10 day old baby, and a couple of thousand dollars in our pockets. Two and a half years later, using only hard work, the encouragement and appreciation of our community, creativity, and an insane “picking yourself up by the bootstraps” mentality, we now live off the income our farm produces, and have incredible food to share with our community, butcher shops, and restaurants.”

I love the cooperation and community they’re building around their farm:

“We grow a pig garden, and work with a grass-fed dairy, cheese maker, breweries, vegetable farmers, and orchards to provide our animals a healthy, varied diet. We share a cooperative meat CSA with our neighbor and friend, which we distribute through two vegetable CSAs and two farmers markets.”

Robert Lewis, Mortgage Lifter judge

Climbing Tree Farm demonstrates persistence and commitment to bootstrapping a diversified, forage-based poultry, lamb and pork farm operation using old-world husbandry to enhance the land, reduce dependency on imported grain, and produce high quality meat with exceptional flavor and culinary characteristics.

**Please help us Kick-Start next year’s fund by picking up more Mortgage Lifter Sauces today**

Introducing the Muck B. 1802

 

We take everything that we design and produce at Beekman 1802 VERY seriously.

It took us seven years of research, wearing our muck boots all around the world (literally!), to come up with what we think is the PERFECT pair of boots—made for walking… and everything else!

Here’s how we created a boot that works no matter where life takes you:

 

The Muck B. 1802 is a fully functional boot…

The boot is completely waterproof and constructed to endure years of hard use in both rural and urban terrain.

 

But it’s still stylish…

Fully functional boots can be clunky, and because we think a boot has to make whatever you’re wearing look good, we made a few changes.

We removed some of the rubber overlays to reduce the overall weight of the boot and used a different last to give these boots a slimmer profile.
The shaft of the boot is supple and flexible to fit even those (like Brent) with more muscular calves and is covered with a protective high-gloss rubber overlay so that it looks sleek and slimming.
We kept the aesthetic elements of the boot to a minimum so that the boot truly could work with whatever you happen to be wearing and suitable for men & women.


And probably the most hi-tech shoe you’ll own…

Because we are working with the Original Muck Boot Company, we were able to incorporate the very latest technology including:

A lightweight EVA outsole with specially designed rubber pods for optimal traction and support
CR-Foam and etc sockliner to make the boot comfortable and cushiony
and BEST OF ALL, the boot is lined with the patented Xpresscool lining so that your foot never gets hot and sweaty. You don’t even need to wear socks!

 

The boot for every one.
The boot for every wear.

 

(Now you’ll see why we never take them off!)

Coming soon!

It took us seven years of research, wearing our muck boots all around the world (literally!), to come up with what we think is the PERFECT pair of boots—made for walking, and everything else!

Take a look back at the R & D process:

 

5 Beautiful Things

 

Building a Mystery

Korean artist JeeYoung Lee makes her dreams come true: literally. The 30 year-old sculptor, painter and photographer converts her 3-meter by 6-meter studio in Seoul into tangible manifestations of her dreams, memories and emotions and then photographs them for exhibit. What makes her work so impressive, aside from its stunning visual impact, is that Photoshop is not used to enhanced the photography at all. Everything you see in the photographs was handmade by Lee (who always uses herself as the central character in her narratives) and was constructed to reflect a specific feeling. In the first image, for instance, each blade of grass was individually made of craft wire and then secured to a mesh base. It took Lee three months to complete this tableau, which is a depiction of a memory of her grandmother’s farm and the fireflies that would come alive at night. Lee is represented by the Opiom Gallery in France and below are five of her surrealistic settings. Each one has a story to tell. Click here to read more about JeeYoung and see more examples of her work.

 

 

Titles:

 

1. Treasure Hunt

2. Sweet Appetite

3. Last Supper

4. Nightscape

5. The Little Match Girl

 

 

Behind the Scenes at QVC

Whenever we get invited to make a visit to QVC we get as excited as kids when they find out they’re heading to Disney World. (We also get excited when we get invited to Disney World. We get excited a lot.)

For any entrepreneur or small business person, QVC is like retail heaven. Not simply because they move a lot of product…but it’s an amazing retail machine. More than just selling our books, we look at each visit as a chance to learn from some of the smartest retail folks on the planet.

Even if you’re not a QVC customer you’ll be impressed with their operations. Imagine a 24/7/364 live television program (only Christmas day is pre-taped) where tens of thousands of dollars per minute are on the line. In the time it takes a host to sneeze, thousands of dollars could be lost. And if a host has to pee…well…they don’t. They just don’t.

Their studios are the most cutting edge on the planet, covering over 15 football fields of space. They showcase 1150 products on air each week, and have shipped over a billion packages to customers. There are only 25 hosts who do all this…without the benefit of cue cards or teleprompters. It’s all off the cuff. And from the heart. The hosts help choose which items they want to feature on their shows and only share what they personally like. Rule #1 of any retailer…if you don’t believe in it, don’t carry it.

Before we made our first appearance three years ago, we had to attend QVC University. It’s a day long program, with simulated segments paired with real hosts. We’ll always remember the most important lesson we learned: don’t sell. It’s all about telling, not selling. If you believe in your product, and QVC believes in your product, then all you and the host need to do is talk about it. Makes sense right?

Given such a high pressure environment, with so much money at stake every second, you’d think people would be all pushy and edgy. But that’s the most amazing part…everyone you meet at QVC is having a blast! We’re always lucky enough to be invited onto David Venable’s show, “In the Kitchen with David.” David, and his co-host Mary, are joys to be around. They love their jobs, and they love their viewers and customers. It’s really inspiring.  And very Beekman.

Check out the slideshow below for a behind-the-scenes glimpse of our most recent trip to QVC.

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Pasquetta

We were out in the garden recently when our neighbor, Rose Marie Trapani, stopped by with a piece of her savory Easter Pie.  With it’s layers of pastry, egg, and sausage it was almost enough to make us forget about the Easter dinner of lamb that we had planned.

But why should we?  Rose Marie also came bearing information about a holiday known as pasquetta in her native Italy.

Celebrated on Easter Monday, pasquetta is when families in the village gather together for a communal picnic, bringing all the left overs from their respective Easter dinners to share with everyone else.

We thought this was a wonderful tradition that needed to be revived at Beekman 1802, so we decided to have a pasquetta for our employees on Easter Monday. In addition to Rose Marie’s contributions, we also received several wonderful dishes from our new neighbors, Kathy and Curt Merrick.

Take a look:

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Special thanks to neighbors Kathy Merrick and Rose Marie Trapani for sharing their Easter leftovers!

 

Menage a Trois

Just like Beekman Farm inspires everything we create at Beekman 1802, it also inspires others who happen upon it.  This gets us into all sorts of adventures.

You may remember one of Josh’s tales of a fashion shoot at the farm in which the handsome male models were instructed to “roll around the hay”.    We laughed furtively from the other side of the barn knowing good and well that the pile of “hay” they were cavorting in was the winter’s worth of manure that had recently been shoveled from the goat stalls.

This time, we were on the other side of the camera and luckily got to cavort with a gorgeous model named Julia Morrison.

In this shoot, styled by Montgomery Frazier for ZINC Magazine and shot by photographer Babak, the story was of a weekend-in-the-country menage-a-trois but with a twist–the men found true love in one another.

 

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Clothing:  Black Fleece by Brooks Brothers

Jewelry:  David Yurman

Bowties:  Bautaugh

Bags and hats:  vintage

LHJ and 1802!

The Ladies’ Home Journal was first published in 1883 and ever since has been one of the leading women’s magazines in the United States. By 1907, it became the first American magazine of any type to reach 1 million subscribers.

 

In 1946, LHJ adopted the slogan, “Never underestimate the power of a woman,” which it continues to use today.

 

The Journal continues to be at the forefront of the publishing industry, announcing that portions of its editorial content would be crowd-sourced from readers, who would be fairly compensated for their work. The arrangement was one of the first of its kind among major consumer magazines.

 

At Beekman 1802, we take great pride in all of our partners. After all, you ARE the company that you keep. This is why we are so honored that the May issue of LHJ has chosen to highlight the Beekman 1802 Heirloom Vegetable Cookbook.

 

To honor this, any LHJ reader that signs up for our farm newsletter will receive 15% off their first order of any items in the online Mercantile, including autographed and personalized copies of the new book. Click here to join the newsletter. And welcome to the farm!

 

5 Beautiful Things

Exceptional Eggs

As Easter gifts go, one cannot get more extravagant than a pair of Fabergé eggs. Each year at Easter Czar Nicholas II of Russia commissioned his Imperial goldsmith, Peter Carl Fabergé, to design two elaborate Easter eggs to give as gifts: one to bestow upon his wife and one to give to his mother. Between 1880 and 1917 there were more than 60 decorative eggs created by Fabergé; 54 of those were the result of the Czar’s imperial commission.

Fabergé worked with dozens of his craftsmen to design and create unique eggs that would surprise and delight the Imperial Family each year at Easter. The commission gave Fabergé and his team the freedom to ignore questions of cost and time and to concentrate on the challenge of creating something new and unimagined for his patrons. The resulting artworks are proof that Fabergé met that challenge and far exceeded any expectations.

The eggs were made of the most precious materials available (porcelain, enamal, gold) and then encrusted with sapphires, rubies, diamonds, emeralds and crystals. The eggs often included hand-painted details and mechanical elements, such as inset time pieces or moveable parts that opened secret compartments or uncovered surprising stowaways: one egg opened to reveal a solid gold miniature replica of the Imperial carriage, completely studded with diamonds.

That such excess was encouraged by the Czar at a time when more than half of Russia was starving is unsettling, to say the least. However, the craftsmanship and artistry demonstrated by Fabergé and his team in creating these unsurpassed treasures must be regarded today as gifts to the entire world. They are among the most beautiful testaments to the art of handmade design and craftsmanship.

Their actual cost is inestimable and after the revolution, the eggs were dispersed throughout the world, ending up in museums and private collections. The last Fabergé egg to see the inside of an auction house fetched more than $16-million. Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg paid more than $100-million for a series of nine Fabergé eggs. The Queen of England owns several examples and the Kremlin Armoury has ten of the eggs in its collection. The others reside in museums throughout Europe and America and numerous, individual examples can be found in private collections. Below are five examples of Fabergé eggs.

 

Welcome, new friends.

Josh & Brent, “The Beekman Boys.” (photo: Andrea Parisi http://fireflygfx.com/)

(Welcome QVC Viewers! Be sure to check out our online Beekman 1802 Farm Mercantile. To keep up with Brent & Josh & Beekman Farm, sign up for our monthly newsletter. We’ll share exclusive deals, tips, recipes and fun stories about the farm. Sign up here! )

Welcome to Beekman 1802 Farm – home of Josh, Brent, Farmer John, the goats, PolkaSpot and all kinds of crazy creatures. If you haven’t heard of us before, we’re glad to finally be meeting you. We put this article together to help you learn more about Brent & Josh, our company, and our great upstate home – Sharon Springs, NY.

If you’ve found your way to us from QVC, you can learn more about our farm lives by watching The Fabulous Beekman Boys on Cooking Channel, every Tuesday morning at 8:30am. (Click here to find the channel listing in your area) You can also watch the first season of our show on  iTunes, DVD, or Amazon Instant Video

Or you can read all about how we became “accidental goat farmers” and founded our company, Beekman 1802, in our bestselling memoir The Bucolic Plague.  If you’re interested in trying some of our goat milk soaps, cheese, and artisanal crafts, please check out our online store or visit us in person. If you like to cook, please check out all of our bestselling cookbooks.

Here’s a little more about our background s…

Brent is a physician who used to work as “Dr Brent” at Martha Stewart Omnimedia. You might recognize him from his appearances on the Martha Stewart Show. Josh is a writer, who also works in advertising. We’ve been together 15 years, having first met in New York City where we lived full time up until seven years ago. That’s when we stumbled across the Beekman Mansion and Farm in Sharon Springs, NY while on an apple picking trip. We purchased it, and the rest is not only history…it’s our future. Check out this slideshow to find out more.

Beekman1802.com is the hub of everything Beekman.

Here you’ll find great recipes, gardening articles, decor ideas, and can shop for all our products. Please look around a little and comment on anything that tickles your fancy. Share your tips with us too! We can all always be a little more fabulous.

Nice to meet you,

Josh & Brent