I recently went on a weekend road trip to Utah in order to revive my mind and my soul. Nothing does that better than a gentle wind lightly brushing your face as it makes its way across the desert and through the canyons. While driving down the picturesque Highway 24, about 25 miles east of Capitol Reef National Park, we stopped at the Mesa Farm Market for a coffee. And what a great cup of coffee it was — aromatic, fragrant, and good enough to put any hipster coffee shop barista to shame. If you find yourself in that part of the world, do stop and try it. Grab a piece of freshly baked bread and

farm-made goat cheese while you’re at it.

The man behind the farm is a sixty-six-year-old Randy Ramsley. He has created a sustainable ecosystem, which is quite something. He grows his own vegetables (in a greenhouse) and tends to a herd of goats. Many come to him seeking knowledge about how to raise goats, especially in Utah. By offering his advice, Randy is furthering a truly ancient tradition. It was roughly 10,000 years ago that humans started domesticating animals, and new pee-based research suggests that only about 1,000 years later, they were managing herds of goats and sheep and using them for food. Many millennia later, it seems to me that Randy has really perfected this practice.

This first appeared on my April 28, 2019, weekly newsletter. If you like to get this delivered to your inbox, just sign-up here, and I will take care of the rest.