April & May 2019

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