More on the CIA director as farmer...

Is this a Yeoman??

CIA director moonlights as farmer in Va.

By Katherine Shrader, Associated Press Writer October 12, 2005

ORANGE, Va. --Just like his spies, the CIA director lives a double life. Porter Goss, the head of the nation's leading intelligence agency, moonlights as a farmer at his 575-acre property in the rolling hills of central Virginia, where he raises cattle, sheep and chickens.
He and his wife, Mariel, practice sustainable agriculture: humane farming techniques, no pesticides or chemical fertilizers.

Locals can stop by the Gosses' nearby boutique general store for organically grown tomatoes, raspberries and pears. They can pick up a bag of "Bare Naked" banana nut granola, a woolly lambskin or, if they're lucky, some of Mrs. Goss's famous blackberry preserves.
Goss, who declined to be interviewed for this article, was supposed to retire last January, leaving Congress after representing a Republican district on Florida's West Coast for 16 years. In 1999, he and his wife purchased Retreat Farm, now worth at least $1.3 million, and they own the Village Depot store almost two miles away.

But when President Bush called, Goss put off retirement and became CIA director in September 2004. The Yale graduate from a wealthy Connecticut family now oversees the highly secretive and tumultuous agency as it adapts to the war on terror.
Retreat Farm, Goss says, is his escape.

"This is the opposite of Washington," Goss told Virginia Living magazine in August 2004. "This is nice. This is not cutthroat. This is where people come out to help you."
Open Thursday to Sunday during much of the year, the Village Depot store doubles as a community center, featuring a bulletin board with postings about festivals, nearby yoga classes and other happenings in the Virginia Piedmont.

It's also taking orders for organic Thanksgiving turkeys at the "good neighbor price" of $3.15 a pound -- the same price the store pays.

But perhaps the store is most well known for the farm's homegrown Piedmontese cattle, an Italian breed whose steaks are more tender and less fatty than those typically found at a regular meat market.

They come with special cooking instructions on bright green slips of paper: "LOWER HEAT and LESS TIME are the keys to the perfect Piedmontese. ... Let the meat rest after cooking so that it can retain its wonderful juiciness. ENJOY!"

A congressman at the time, Goss told Virginia Living that the farm brings uncertainty, but has its little rewards: "Like sitting on the porch after a day of work with a glass of ice cold water, watching as the evening settles in, or having breakfast with two fresh eggs you just got from the henhouse.

"You just have a sense that you're doing something that matters, in a small way, but in a significant way," he said. "I think that's good for the human psyche."