Winter settles gently over orchards, vineyards, prairies and farms – but inside kitchens and country markets, something sweet is always stirring. Prairie River Honey Farm in Grand Island bottles jars of golden raw honey, while flaky pies and savory soups stock the shelves at Union Orchard in Union.

In Raymond, James Arthur Vineyards pours holiday cheer by the glass, while West End Farm in Plymouth bundles up its bounty through homemade granola and jam. To the west in Paxton, Rafter 7S stirs chokecherry jellies and wild plums that taste like pure Sandhills sunshine. This holiday season, give a gift that’s grown, bottled and baked close to home.

 

Prairie River Honey Farm  

Grand Island 

prairieriverhoneyfarm.com  
(308) 384-1824  

THE AIR HUMS with wings along the Loup River, where thousands of bees drift over wildflowers and prairie grass. Inside Prairie River Honey Farm’s small bottling shed, golden honey pours into jars – the sweet reward of Brody Emery’s 14-year experiment in family, patience and place.

For Emery, the fascination began with curiosity – and a few white hive boxes spotted along Nebraska’s backroads. After earning a business degree in 2011, he took a beekeeping class through the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension, bought two hives and set them up behind his parents’ house. That first year his bees produced 200 bottles of honey, which sold out in two months.

This backyard experiment became the foundation for a thriving family business run by Brody and his parents, Greg and Charlene. Together they care for hives along the Loup River in central Nebraska on protected USDA Pollinator Habitat land.

Each season brings its own rhythm – spring splits, summer nectar flows and fall harvests that keep the family busy year-round. Beekeeping, for Brody, is both business and meditation. “It’s a Zen moment when you’re working with the bees,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands of bees are flying around you. It’s peaceful and exhilarating at the same time.”

Their bees forage on more than 40 varieties of native wildflowers – penstemons, prairie clovers, milkweed, wild bergamot, sunflowers, goldenrod and asters. The result is raw honey that carries the flavor of the land itself: lightly sweet and lingering.

Every jar comes straight from the hive – unheated, unprocessed and hand-bottled to preserve natural enzymes, antioxidants, vitamins and pollens. Brody calls it “nature’s immunization shot,” since raw honey introduces trace amounts of local pollen that help the body build up immunity to regional allergies.

Prairie River also sells bee pollen, royal jelly, honeycomb, beeswax and flavored honey sticks, all available online or at Nebraska retailers like Hy-Vee.

Pure, golden and straight from the source – you best bee-lieve it.

 

James Arthur Vineyards

Raymond 

jamesarthurvineyards.com 
(402) 783-5255 

On a sun-drenched hillside near Raymond, rows of 12,000 grapevines ripple in the breeze. They’re a testament to one family’s 28-year experiment that began as a hobby and blossomed into Nebraska’s largest winery.

In 1996, James Arthur Jeffers purchased land north of Lincoln for his family to enjoy, as animals roamed the acreage and aspirations pointed toward planting an apple orchard. But when his son-in-law, Jim Ballard, planted the idea of, well, planting a few grapevines, Jeffers decided to see it through.

Jim, his wife Barb and the family planted the first hundred vines by hand. As their grapes grew, so did the idea of turning the family’s hobby into a business. A pioneer in Midwest wine production, James Arthur Vineyards opened its doors as Nebraska’s second winery in 1997.

Three generations and nearly three decades later, the vineyard has grown into Nebraska’s largest with 20 acres of pristine landscaping, 12,000 vines and other fruit crops. Ballard specializes in hybrid varietals that are winter hardy, accustomed to shorter growing seasons and Nebraska’s 20-below temperatures, such as Edelweiss, LaCrosse, St. Croix and Vignoles grapes.

Each JAV bottle contains 100% Nebraska wine. The family sees production through from start to finish – from planting and pruning to harvesting, crushing, fermenting and bottling. They also work with 20 local growers to produce additional grapes needed for each year’s supply, ensuring every crushed grape was grown on Nebraska soil.

“We pride ourselves on the fact that we’ve created a Nebraska product that authentically represents our state,” Ballard said. “It’s something Nebraskans can be proud of too.”

Ballard, a former broadcast journalist, dove headfirst into the learning curve of winemaking when the vineyard first opened. “I love creating – the mixing, the matching, the blending. Winemaking is 50% science and 50% art.”

That art has culminated in an impressive lineup of wines, from sweet dessert wines to dry oaky reds, 10-year-old aged port wines and even meads. The award-winning Edelweiss, a semi-sweet white bursting with green apple tartness, remains a top seller.

But for Ballard, his favorite wines come from their family series, each honoring their rich history. Edyn’s Blush, a light citrusy wine, honors his only daughter – who’s known around the winery as Peach. A semi-sweet wine made from free-run juice called 2 Brothers ensures no favoritism among his sons, Beau and Benjamin. Sweet Charlotte is named for his mom, Bossy Sister for his sister, and Kira after his beloved yellow lab.

Each wine tells a story – not just about pure Nebraska grapes, but about the family themselves. To taste the fruits of their labor, stop by the serene vineyard for the full experience, visit their downtown tasting room, From Nebraska Gift Shop, in Lincoln’s Haymarket, or find a bottle at a local retailer.

However you find it, each glass circles back to the land where it all began – a handful of vines, a wild idea and a family whose little hobby grew into something extraordinary.

 

West End Farm

Plymouth  

westendfarmne.com  
(402) 239-9822 

On Land Her  family bought more than a century ago, Katie Jantzen is reimagining what it means to farm in Nebraska. At West End Farm in Plymouth, she grows dozens of crops on a single acre – and cultivates community with every harvest.

Jantzen is a fifth-generation steward of the soil, her roots sunk deep into the same ground first purchased in 1891. The family once ran a dairy but sold their cattle 15 years ago. Still, Jantzen grew up exploring the farm, curious about what the land could provide. “I was always experimental. One year I tried planting a row of cotton in my mom’s garden and it actually grew,” she said. “I liked to wander out and snack on bell peppers and green onions.”

Jantzen moved east and spent her formative years in college and beyond learning more about specialty crops and local food systems, developing a community garden program and working on a produce farm. She then brought home everything she’d learned, determined to make her family’s farm thrive.

Today she grows more than 50 crops on one acre – vegetables, herbs, melons and berries – and introduces unusual varieties such as yellow watermelons and purple peppers. Beehives provide honey, and she turns fruit into jams. The farm operates on a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model, where consumers purchase a 20-week subscription to receive produce from June to mid-October.

“I love sparking a childhood memory of radish sandwiches or seeing kids light up when they try multicolored cherry tomatoes. It’s fun to help people discover how good fresh food tastes,” Jantzen said.

For locals who love to cook, value healthy eating or prefer experiences over things, Jantzen recommends a CSA subscription. The farm also makes gift-worthy products – beeswax hexagons, honey and gingerbread granola – available at farmers markets in Beatrice and Lincoln or online.

More than a century after her family first put down roots in Nebraska, Jantzen is still cultivating connection – just with a few more colors on the vine.

 

Rafter 7S

Paxton  

buynebraska.com/collections/rafter-7s 
(308) 726-2319  

In the hearT of the Sandhills, jars of crimson jelly line the shelves at Rafter 7S. The Seifers’ small kitchen fills with the smell of wild plums and chokecherries as each batch is stirred by hand – sweet and simple as the land around them.

The fruits of their labor are gathered close to home. The Seifers forage for wild chokecherries and Sandhill plums together and grow the peppers used in their popular pepper jellies. Sherri searches for fruit in the same shelterbelts of trees where her children once played, and every batch carries the flavor of the land that raised them.

Sherri and Dean Seifer started Rafter 7S in 1997 so Sherri could stay home with their three kids while helping on the family ranch. What began as a few jars for friends soon grew into a small-batch business rooted as deeply in the prairie as the fruit that flavors its jars.

In those early days, they sold jellies and baked goods at the local farmers market. Customers returned each weekend, drawn by the taste and the story behind every jar. Sherri and her kids Kate, Mara and Clay handpicked each berry along creeks and fence lines, stirring them slow and steady in small pots with no preservatives or shortcuts.

By 2004, the Seifers built a commercial kitchen, and Rafter 7S became a Sandhills staple. The name comes from a cattle brand that’s been in Dean’s family for generations, tying their jelly craft to the same heritage that’s shaped their ranching life on Dean’s family ranch. Today, their products appear in shops across Nebraska through Grow Nebraska and other retailers.

Come the holidays, jars find their way into stockings across Nebraska. Their Holiday Habanero Jelly, with bright cranberry heat, has become a December favorite. Sherri recommends spooning some over cream cheese and serving with crackers.

“Jelly is a good gift for those hard-to-buy-for people,” Sherri said. “I hear from customers who gift a jar of Wild Chokecherry jelly and it brings a smile to their face.”

At Rafter 7S, every jar is a story of family, land and the sweetness that comes from preserving both.

 

Wostrel Family’s Union Orchard

Union  

unionorchard.com  
(402) 263-4845  

Winter drifts softly over Union Orchard, but inside the Country Store the air is alive with warmth. Cinnamon, butter and baked apples fill the kitchen as golden pies emerge from the oven and shelves brim with jams, pickles and honey.

Outside, the trees rest; inside, it’s soup season – quarts of potato leek and ham, sausage gumbo, chicken corn chowder and butternut squash are frozen and sold to-go for those craving Nebraska comfort.

Nestled along the Otoe-Cass County line, Union Orchard has been a fixture of Nebraska’s Apple Country for more than a century. In 1917, the University of Nebraska purchased 80 acres to establish a demonstration fruit farm. To prove the region’s southeastern hills could support commercial orchards, researchers planted 40 acres of apple, cherry, peach, pear and plum trees, along with berry plots.

The University Fruit Farm changed hands thrice – to the Rings in 1961, the Lechners in 1991, then in 2011 to Terry and Carla Wostrel. Carla and her late husband once bought apples here, long before imagining they’d own the land. “It was serendipitous,” Carla said. After raising three kids, the couple set out to revive the orchard.

They replanted 30 acres with apples, peaches and pears – more than 10,000 trees across 18 apple varieties. In summer, the grounds burst with berries, pumpkins, asparagus and heirloom squash. Come fall, the spotlight shifts to what’s baked and bottled: pies, turnovers, smoked sausage and St. Vincent wine from the orchard’s own grapes – a semi-dry red that pairs well with sharp cheese and holiday roasts.

“Our philosophy is if we can’t use our own products, we keep everything as local as possible,” Carla said. “We want to represent our local communities.” The Country Market is open daily, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., year-round, taking pre-orders for holiday pies.

At Union Orchard, there’s a taste of homegrown goodness in every pie crust and soup jar. As the holiday season reaches the orchard, the scent of cinnamon and apples reminds visitors that Nebraska’s harvest never truly ends.