Nelson Produce Farm, located in Elk City, Nebraska, offers views of yellow farmland straight out of a fairytale. It’s easy to say that their first annual sunflower festival, which happened on Labor Day Weekend of 2019, became an easy Omaha favorite.
Young sunflowers follow the sun from rise to set every day until maturity, a behavior referred to as heliotropism by the Ancient Greeks. Other plants that move in response to the direction of the sun include several breeds of tropical flowers and leaves.
Although the average length of a sunflower seed is just 52 millimeters, by the time the blossom has matured (which usually takes sometime between 70 and 100 days), the flowers are usually 5 to 10 feet tall.
At Nelson Produce Farm, picking is encouraged. In addition to sunflowers, strawberries, watermelon, and snow peas are open for all guests to take home with a small fee. The practice of handpicking fresh produce brings an experience that the farmers market simply doesn’t offer.
The Nelson Family’s goal is to allow all families to experience what farm life is like through activities such as pedal track racing, hay bell jumping, and acreage-animal petting.
Although Nelson Produce Farm does not compare in size to the farmers market giants of Aksarben and the Old Market, it still offers quality, home-grown crop available to all guests for purchase. The small town feel of Nelson fosters the feelings of more simple times.