Specialty Crop

Diantha and Jack States have an historic apple orchard on their property near Lander, and the some 50 trees annually produce up to 2,000 pounds of heritage and specialty apples. The couple also offer apple blossom honey.

“We’re in a marginal growing region, but we still manage to produce delicious apples when the conditions are right,” Diantha told the Riverton Ranger newspaper in May 2024. Cuttings from some of the trees have become part of the University of Wyoming’s Wyoming Apple Project, an effort to document cultivars of historical trees using genetic fingerprinting techniques (see Statewide section). The couple also offer arts and crafts, and their book Wildflowers of Wyoming is available for purchase.

“From keeping bees to archiving relics, exploring caves near his home and studying microscopic organisms in Wyoming’s soil, Jack States is enthusiastic about understanding how science and history propel human life,” said an April 2023 story in WyoFile about Jack. The story, which also discusses the historic apple orchard, is at https://wyofile.com/from-fungi-to-arcana-a-life-defined-by-nature-and-history/