Our family has been operating this farm as a pick your own berry and pumpkin ranch for 30 years. The farm is owned by the Schaefer family, including Ed, Tyson, Zach and their families. Ed’s brother’s family runs Roca Berry Farm in Lancaster County, where they too have been harvesting memories for their customers for over a quarter a century.
Our roots run deep in Nebraska’s frontier history. Our great grandfather along with one brother left a Nebraska homestead to start a new ranch in Dakota Territory during the early 1880’s. Ed’s father grew up on a ranch near Wall South Dakota, and after World War II he became Chief of Nutrition with the Public Health Service in Washington D.C. Ed’s father moved back to Nebraska, after retiring from the government, to establish the Swanson Center on Nutrition.
Our family is deeply committed to family farming, preservation of farm land, and the values of rural America. A visit to our ranch, while close to the Greater Omaha area, is like revisiting the past when farming was the main stay of the U.S. Economy.
We are not just a pick your own farm, we are a country experience where guests will see a variety of farm antiques, livestock and crops, as well as unique play areas patterned after what life was like for kids 40 to 100 years ago.
We offer hayrides through 20 acres of woods along the old papio creek bed. Unique tree houses can be visited along with our version of a small western frontier town and kids fun playgrounds, including a 3 story 120 foot long pirate ship.
