A Year In the Country (via suds)

Working at one of Canada's three new Anthropologie stores has numerous perks, not the least of which is being surrounded by luxuriant scents for the entirety of my time on duty. Within the store is a glorious selection of home and personal fragrances, carefully chosen by our offices to reflect the image of our brand, including candles, perfumes and soaps.

I was thrilled when I learned several months ago that two friends of mine had joined the numerous vendors that Anthropologie brings on board on a continuous basis. Dr. Brent Ridge (a former health editor at Martha Stewart Living magazine) and his partner Josh Kilmer-Purcell (a novelist and advertising executive) are owners of the prolifically productive Beekman Farm in Sharon Springs, New York. They now sell various examples of their fine, all-natural goat's-milk soaps at Anthropologie, including an exclusive new boxed collection of 12 handmade soaps, straight from the mills of their farm.

Their "A Year In the Country" soap collection features all twelve of their custom-formulated scents (12 soaps with particular scents that reflect seasonal fragrances) and comes in a beautiful, sturdy wooden box.

I adore the label on the tin!

When I told Brent about my little scream of delight when I received the delivery of his soap at our store in Toronto, he informed me that he personally made, by hand, each of the metal lids on each of the hundreds of boxes that are being shipped to Anthropologie stores across North America, and to the new store in London, England. He also had to hand cut each of the small holes on the lids, which act as gripping mechanisms to slide the lid open. His effort paid off -the collection is beautiful!

Underneath each monthly soap is a description of the scent and the natural derivatives that were used to achieve it. All the soap is handmade at the Beekman farm by Brent and Josh (with help from Farmer John!) using the milk from their prized goats.

In any case, the soaps are delightful and are so beautifully packaged that I will naturally be buying myself a box. I urge you to seek them out at the Anthropologie nearest you or order them online at anthropologie.com

NOTE: I will be visiting Brent and Josh at the farm in December, so I'll have a full report about their beautiful little piece of earth, with photos!