Summer Must Read

I have become fascinated and infatuated with "The Fabulous Beekman Boys". My obsession first started when Williams Sonoma started carrying their heirloom vegetable seeds and their memoir.  Their memoir? Since when does William Sonoma carry novels?
"The Fabulous Beekman Boys" are two Manhattanites who bought a million dollar weekend home/mansion/farm in rural New York. Originally their journey began as only a weekend retreat and turned into a business. Their story is about risking it all to become gentlemen farmers.

Come to find out - one of the boys - Dr. Brent Ridge who was formally Martha Stewart's health and wellness expert for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia - is from North Carolina. Dr. Brent is from Randleman, NC which is close to Ashboro. Also, in one of their episodes, the pair travels to North Carolina to pick up baby sheep from a "farm" for Martha Stewart and who meets them in the driveway other than Lynn Scott Safrit! (For those of you who don't know LSS is David Murdock's right hand woman here in Kannapolis for Castle and Cook.)

The memoir was written by Josh Kilmer-Purcell, the other half of the Beekman Duo. Josh is an ad executive in New York City and juggles farm life with the pressure of big city deals. I could not put this book down! It is farming and living the American Dream told through the perspective of a drag queen. Believe it or not, there is a lot I can relate to in this book; but not the walking on gold fish filled platform shoes at 4 am through New York City part. In the Epilogue, Josh pays tribute to his inspirations from Oprah and Martha by saying,

My only dream was to live the rest of my life at the farm, pickling, weeding, and mucking. It's what Oprah told me I should do, and what Martha inspired me to achieve. But they were wrong. Actually, they weren't wrong. I just heard them wrong. Martha isn't about achieving perfection - God knows she hasn't. It's about going back time after time trying to get there. It's about graciously, meticulously, fabulously hosting that last-chance New York Times reporter house guest even when all you want to do is lie on a fly-littered bed, read gossip magazines, and die. And Oprah's call to live your Best Life isn't as simple as it seems. Your Best Life isn't necessarily your favorite life or the one you selfishly want. It's simply the life you're best at.

This is a great read that will keep you motivated to weed, can, and cook all summer long.