The Fabulous Beekman Boys are at it again with a second season of their reality show on Planet Green and a ton of new gay farmer antics. If you haven't heard of the dynamic duo pull on up a chair and listen to the tale of Dr. Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell. Kilmer-Purcell, an author/ad exec, and Ridge, vice president to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia/physician, decided to move to the country and become farmers. Everything may not be coming up roses for the two but that is part of the fun of watching the couple at the little million-dollar Beekman mansion on the prairie.
Windy City Times: Hello, Boys. How have things been going for you both recently?
Brent Ridge: Things have been going well. The theme for this season of the show is million-dollar challenge. When we left off from last season it was our year of sacrifice where we tried to build the business. We were living apart. In the beginning of the this season we are doing what it takes to move Josh from the city and live on the farm full time to help run the company. His paycheck in the city is helping pay our mortgage.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: That is really the focus of season two. Can we make enough money for me to do that? Honestly we don't have the answer because we are still filming season two. So people have to wait and find out when we find out.
WCT: How has business been these days?
Brent Ridge: The business has been going well. We have a big project with Williams-Sonoma. We are going to create the world's largest community ga
rden. We are going to get ten thousand gardeners to all grow ten of the same heirloom vegetables that we grow in our garden.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: There is going to be a big community effort on our website where people can ask us questions and we will help them through the gardening process. People will be able to buy all of those seeds at Williams-Sonomas across the country.
WCT: How are the animals faring this winter?
Brent Ridge: We are in goat season now with 54 births. We are expecting 200 this year. Farmer John is working like crazy and not getting any sleep. I call this his grumpy period.
WCT: Leave poor John alone.
Brent Ridge: I try to leave him alone. I don't ask him to wash windows or anything. It is an exciting time on the farm, when all of the babies start coming, because that is when we start production of everything again.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: We start making cheese and soap again.
WCT: It feels that spring will be here again soon.
Brent Ridge: Exactly. When the baby goats start arriving then we know spring is almost here.
WCT: Do you still have those barn cats running around?
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: We have four cats and they all did well through the winter.
WCT: Polka Spot lives in there?
Brent Ridge: Polka Spot is there. She has become such a big break out star of the show. She has over two thousand followers on Twitter. She will be critiquing the fashion at the Oscars.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: She will be doing that live on Twitter. She has a very specific classification system for fashion. The llama either llikes them, lloves them or spits on them! She did the Golden Globes but some people didn't like the ones she spit on.
WCT: For example?
Brent Ridge: She spit on Eva Langoria and J.Lo. Some people didn't like it but Pokie shoots from the hip.
WCT: Although Jennifer Lopez did look good at the Grammys...
Brent Ridge: She did, and now she has all of the American Idol money so she can afford a little bit more.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: That's what Pokie said…
WCT: Your website seems very well-run. Do you design it yourself?
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: Oh yeah, we design everything. Every bit of packaging on all of our products, the website, we do it all. That is why we are always to busy.
WCT: What big names will be on this season?
Brent Ridge: We have some great guest stars lined up for season two. Martha Stewart, of course, is in; Rosie O'Donnell and the chef Marcus Samuelsson [will appear] also.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: It is going to a really great season.
WCT: Have you felt the season has grown a lot from season one to season two?
Brent Ridge: Yes. So many people have seen it. Planet Green aired it a lot to build the audience for it. We get so many letters from all over the country from people who identify with our relationship.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: We do have a big following in the gay community but it is interesting that the people primarily writing to us are straight women. They say our relationship is just like theirs with their husband.
Brent Ridge: They make their husband watch the show and now he loves it. We get that all the time.
WCT: So you are opening doors for people.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: It is a great discussion. We get a lot from moms too that watch the show with their kids. Even though it is a show about a gay couple, it is a very family friendly show.
Brent Ridge: It has helped women have an honest discussion with kids about gay relationships and the fact that two women or two men can have a relationship and it just like the one with their mom and dad. It has spawned a lot of conversations that we never thought it would.
WCT: It is important that the world views LGBT folks in their everyday life.
Brent Ridge: That is really to credit of Planet Green who never looked at it as a gay show. They just looked at as two people at a transition point in their life. That is remarkable. It is the very first reality show that has focused on a real gay relationship as the primary focus of the show.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: The fact that it is on a channel that is not traditionally a gay channel really says how far we have come.
WCT: I have heard from many gay fans that they like the fact that normal fights in a relationship are being conveyed on television.
Brent Ridge: Well, people argue. We knew what we liked in reality shows and we feel it is very authentic. We knew going into it that if we wanted it to be a relevant show what we have to do. We didn't ever try to sugar coat anything. In the first season there was a lot of bickering and we actually got some criticism about it being too much.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: Again, that was our year of sacrifice. We were apart and under a lot of stress. I only got to see Brent on the weekends so that meant we could only film on the weekends. Not only did we have our normal stress of life but then we had cameras there on the only two days that we were there together. Any arguments or things we had to discuss that happened all week we had to do in front of the camera.
WCT: You were just nominated for a GLAAD award.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: Yes, a GLAAD award and a NewNowNext Award from Logo.
Brent Ridge: For people that missed season one, two weeks prior to the season two premiere Planet Green will rerun the entire first season calling it More Fab with pop ups and behind the scenes facts, like VH1's Pop Up Video.
WCT: Sounds fun! Are you doing more writing, Josh?
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: The blogging and website are keeping me very busy. We have a cookbook coming out which was a fair amount of writing. I am starting to feel the itch to do something with a longer format again.
WCT: Tell our readers about the cookbook.
Brent Ridge: We are doing an amazing cookbook. Just like any of the products that we designed this as well. We looked at what needed to be in the market place that is not already there. You can get about any recipe online including our website. What we designed was a hybrid, a cookbook/scrapbook.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: It is called Heirloom Recipes Inspired by Beekman 1802. We have a 112 brand recipes that do twists on comfort foods so they are the recipes that everyone should have in their skills set so the best macaroni and cheese, the best meatloaf, the best easy pasta dish.
Brent Ridge: Scattered throughout the book are pages where people can write their own recipes in. People can give it as a gift after they are done. So if someone is getting married or just finished college then they give them this book with all of their own family recipes in it but a hundred starter recipes so they can get their life started.
WCT: When is the cookbook coming out?
Brent Ridge: In October. You can see some of the preparation of the book in season two, how we chose the photographer for the photo shoots.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: And how we argue about what is going to go in it!
Brent Ridge: I ultimately won.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: Oh, please!
WCT: No fighting, boys! [Laughs]
The Beekman Boys will be live and in person at Williams-Sonoma, 900 N. Michigan on Friday, March 18, 4-6 p.m.
The second season of Fabulous Beekman Boys premieres on Tuesday, March 22, on the Planet Green channel. Listings and information can be found at planetgreen.discovery.com . Come grow with the Boys on their personal website at beekman1802.com .