Hitting Pay Dirt

Feed the pigs, then luxuriate at the spa at these agritourism resorts where guests can take a hands-on approach to farm-to-table eating. 

- ADAM ERACE

HEN PARTY A guest visits the heritage chickens at Beach Plum Farm. The eggs they produce are used in the farm's restaurants.

CURTIS BASHAW had never used a machete before. 

In 2007, he and Will Riccio, his husband and business partner, bought 62 briar-choked acres of farmland in West Cape May, N.J. Four decades of neglect stood between them and their dream: to live in a farmhouse, with gardens to supply Bashaw's Cape Resorts hotels. There were no roads. Mercurial marshes swelled and vanished. Foxes and coyotes prowled the woods and brambles.

"It felt like one of those sad movies in the Dust Bowl where this family's staking their claim and the wind just blows everything away," Bashaw says. But like the salt-water-tolerant fruit for which it's named, Beach Plum Farm eventually flourished in these inhospitable conditions. Instead of building their home, the couple built a destination. They slashed back the overgrowth, planted crops, layered in livestock, added a café and market, and in 2018 introduced their first two rental cottages. Bashaw was sure that guests would want to do farm labor, even if the number crunchers were doubtful.

"People want mud on their boots," Bashaw says. He was right. The Beach Plum cottage collection (from $476 a night) has grown to six, with two more underway. The newest boasts four bedrooms with en suite bathrooms, two porches, and a bird-watching tower overlooking the appletree-lined pool. Beyond the Marshall Bluetooth speakers, Nespresso milk frothers, and Matisse prints, there's a real blood-and-bones farm where roosters scream at sunrise.