Want to know where to buy locally-made honey, handmade jam or garden-grown squash? There’s a newly updated resource for foodies looking to shop close to home. The University of Wyoming Extension’s Specialty Crop Directory lists nearly 1,100 producers, farmers markets and community gardens all over the state.
The free, downloadable guide connects consumers to food hubs in their county and around Wyoming. It’s got nearly 300 more offerings than the first version, which came out in 2021, and also includes listings for county fairs and markets, school gardens and other organizations directly involved with agriculture.
Robert Waggener works part-time for the university and compiled the directory. For him, one of the biggest strengths of the project is its “visual appeal” and “reader friendliness.”
“It's not a typical directory where it just lists a name and what they sell and a phone number,” he said.
The directory is less of a phone book and more of a work of art, with photographs, captions, illustrations and personality-filled profiles of many of the featured producers.
Waggener and his wife Leslie now integrate the guide into their travels around the state and have sampled food from every corner of the state. A few highlights for the author include Not Your Mama’s Salsa from Casper, hot sauces and marinades from Mr. Joe’s in Green River and hot dilled pickled asparagus from TW Cannings in Cheyenne.
“I'm a pretty passionate person and a lot of the people I've talked with across the state, you can just hear their passion coming out,” he said. “They're just so excited about what they're doing and sharing it with others.”
Waggener said the passage of the Wyoming Food Freedom Act has created more opportunities for both producers and small businesses to sell their goods through different avenues in the last decade.
Under the law, producers can sell homemade goods without licenses or inspections in certain situations. A 2023 amendment to the act made it possible for stores to serve as “designated agents” for producers, resulting in a big boom of what are essentially year-round indoor farmers markets.
Those stores, like Meadowlark Market in Lander and the Urban Basket in Gillette, are now listed in the newly updated directory, along with other co-ops and opportunities for online orders.
“There are at least 19 year-round indoor markets and farm stands now operating in at least 10 Wyoming counties,” said Waggener. “These are in addition to the numerous spring-through-fall farmers’ markets happening across Wyoming.”
For the author, the state’s harsh climate is one of the biggest challenges facing producers trying to sell fresh foods year-round.
“We're certainly not the central valley of California. It's a little bit hard to grow fresh produce when it's 20 below outside, but there's some producers around the state making that happen,” he said, pointing to Papa Joe’s Produce in Sheridan and Mountain Fresh Produce in Pinedale.
Waggener said he’s also received a lot of positive feedback about the directory from producers and consumers since its release.
“For fellow producers this is a treasure trove of information,” said Dave Ehlers, co-owner of The Garden Table in Newcastle in an email to Waggener. “Understanding who and where your fellow producers are and what they provide creates a great network of colleagues to share experiences and potential pitfalls.”
Up next is an easy-to-update online database version of the directory, which is scheduled to launch early next year. There’s also a plan to include listings for micro-breweries and local coffee roasters down the road.
Funding for the directory was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program through the Wyoming Department of Agriculture.
