It's anybody's guess how many gay ex-Manhattanite goat farmers are scattered around the hills and valleys of Schoharie County. But it's certain there's at least two of them -- and they're well on their way to fame, or at least notoriety. Last night was the first episode of "The Fabulous Beekman Boys," the latest reality show on Planet Green, in which former drag queen Josh Kilmer-Purcell and his city-bred partner Brent Ridge have a whack at running a small farm in Sharon Springs.
The New York Post has a great Q&A with Josh and Brent, in which they wax rhapsodic on the joys of feeding oneself:
PW: In the first episode Brent says, "Josh and I are going to pick up our piglets." Did you ever imagine uttering a sentence like that?
Josh: Just about every other sentence that comes out of our mouths makes me think, “really?”
Brent: It’s funny because last year I had to come down into the city for something, and we sat down for a meal in our city apartment and realized that every single thing that we were eating was from our farm. The cider we drank, the pork we ate, the vegetables we grew – we’d raised everything ourselves. And we thought, “I bet no one else in the city of Manhattan who can say this right now.”
The best bit is on the 500-person town of Sharon Springs, which gave them a standing ovation at the show's premiere in the high school auditorium a couple of weeks ago:
Brent:...Everything we do for our business stimulates the micro-economy around our farm, so we’re hoping it brings more attention to Sharon Springs.
PW: And they seem very gay friendly.
Josh: People have s*** to do there, they don’t have time to sit around and hate. They’ve got hay to move.
Josh also has a well-timed book fresh off the press, The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentleman Farmers. Here's an excerpt from the New York Times -- and the review, which consigns it to the burgeoning field of "chicken-lit." (Ha.)
