April & May 2019
April & May 2019 Color Issue
April & May 2019
Color Issue
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Turns out the simple life can be pretty luxurious — snapshots from the five cottages at Beach Plum Farm in West Cape <strong>May</strong>.<br />
Picture falling asleep to a<br />
soundtrack of cicadas.<br />
Waking up to the sweet<br />
chipping of a blue-winged<br />
warbler. Spending a lazy<br />
afternoon picking sunwarmed<br />
tomatoes from a<br />
private vegetable garden before taking a<br />
refreshing dip in a saltwater pool, the leaves<br />
of a nearby willow rustling in the breeze.<br />
It may sound like the makings of a<br />
Pinterest vision board, but for guests of the<br />
new cottages at Beach Plum Farm in West<br />
Cape <strong>May</strong>, these are the happenings of a<br />
typical summer’s day.<br />
In 2008, when Cape Resorts Group<br />
purchased this 62-acre stretch of land off<br />
of Stevens Street, managing partner Curtis<br />
Bashaw envisioned providing fresh, clean<br />
produce for his island restaurants — the<br />
Ebbitt Room, the Blue Pig Tavern and the<br />
Rusty Nail. He did not envision creating a<br />
public park, a place where friends and family<br />
would gather to reconnect with nature and<br />
one another. Yet — in addition to producing<br />
more than 100 crops that do, indeed, service<br />
area restaurants — that’s exactly what<br />
the farm has become: a beautifully rustic<br />
escape.<br />
People come here — by foot and by<br />
beach cruiser — to meander woodland<br />
marsh trails that wrap around a duck pond<br />
lined with sweetgum trees. They walk<br />
through herb beds that smell of rosemary<br />
and thyme on their way to vibrant flower<br />
gardens and a free-range chicken coop.<br />
They explore the shaded path that leads to<br />
an apiary and a sunny pen of delightfully<br />
muddy, Berkshire pigs. And, when they’ve<br />
worked up an appetite, these visitors enjoy<br />
lemon verbena-infused tea and farm-fresh<br />
meals at an outdoor picnic table or inside<br />
an Amish-built, post-and-beam barn<br />
constructed in 2015 from Pennsylvania<br />
hemlock, pine and cypress — there’s now a<br />
kitchen and produce market on-site.<br />
“There was such a positive response<br />
when we built this barn,” said Will Riccio,<br />
who spent a year designing the farm’s<br />
homespun-chic cottages. He also owns<br />
the iconic Louisa’s Café on Jackson Street,<br />
which sources its ingredients from Beach<br />
Plum. “Visitors would often say, “Oh, I’d<br />
like to sleep here!” Or they’d comment on<br />
how much they’d like their own homes to<br />
have the rustic, warm feel of this place. I<br />
think a lot of people, especially from the city<br />
or suburbs, harbor a farmhouse fantasy.”<br />
Last summer, this fantasy became a<br />
bit more accessible when the farm began<br />
offering overnight stays in five charming<br />
cottages that form their own picturesque<br />
compound on the grounds. Two are new<br />
buildings with a barn vibe. These came<br />
from the same Lancaster-based Amish<br />
family responsible for the farm’s original<br />
barn, and they were constructed using the<br />
same mortise and tenon joinery technique<br />
— in other words, no nails were used in<br />
their framing, only pegs.<br />
The remaining cottages are impeccably<br />
restored, historic homes that recall a<br />
simpler time on the island. All are available<br />
to rent individually or as a group for<br />
wedding parties and family reunions.<br />
“We had one couple who’d been staying<br />
at Congress Hall for 14 years,” Riccio told<br />
us. “They loved being beachfront, so they<br />
figured they’d give this a try but that it<br />
probably wouldn’t be a fit. Now they say<br />
they can’t imagine staying anywhere else.”