First of all you need to know what type of vehicle you need ie truck, suv, cross over.
TRUCKS-If you are really going to be "farming" you may need a large truck, but you seem like you are a long way from that right now. If you do need a large truck all the American brands are roughly the same with ford usually being the cheapest but probably the best quality as well. The toyota tundra is also a great large pickup but is very expensive. If you do need to buy a large truck research exactly how big you will need it as they come in different flavors depending on how much weight you will need to carry/pull etc.
SMALL TRUCKS- If you need to move stuff but don't need to move lots of really heavy stuff (gravel, horse trailers, etc) then get a small truck like a toyota tacoma or a ford ranger. Both are really reliable and will get the job done. Tacomas can be pricey but are slightly more reliable than the ranger. Honda makes a small truck called the ridgeline I believe that is similar in appearance to the chevy avalanche but it is crazy expensive. I am sure its a good truck if you can afford it but I wouldn't buy it.
SUV's-If all you really need is a commuting vehicle that can handle the snow then get an SUV (sport utility vehicle). If you need a lot of space a toyota forrunner is a great reliable option but they can be very expensive as well. If you can get away with a station wagon size I highly recommend you take a look at subarus. They are AWD (more on that later) and great in things like ice and snow. They drive great and they are easy to park but can still carry a fair amount of stuff. Also they are pretty inexpensive and very reliable. In general run as far away as you can from the american SUV's they will all give you headaches with reliability issues. The nissan you mentioned is also a good SUV and honda does make some decent ones in the same class but they are built on car frames.
CARS- I know you wanted to know about serious truck stuff but I thought it worth mentioning that there are many cars on the market now with AWD that would be a great option if you still want to drive a car. Most are in the luxury market like BMW,Lexus and Mercedes but subaru and a few others make some affordable ones that would work great as well.
explanation of 4 wheel terms
4X4- also known as 4 wheel drive. This type of vehicle is normally 2 wheel drive (rear wheels) for most driving conditions but when you run in to snow, ice, mud, or sand you can engage the front 2 wheels as well to give you better traction. In the old days many 4X4's required that you get out of the vehicle and manually lock the hubs (a simple turn switch on each of the front two wheels) to allow you to engage the 4 wheel drive. However the vast majority of modern vehicles allow you to do it from inside the car, many can even do it while going slow say under 30 MPH. 4X4 is a great option for many traction issues, don't buy a large truck with out it.
AWD- all wheel drive this means all 4 wheels are being powered all the time. This has a couple of advantages over 4X4. For one it is always on so if you hit a patch of something unexpectedly it will already be working and you won't have to switch it like 4X4. Also while there are many different types of AWD most have a system that senses which wheels are slipping and shifts power to the wheels that are gripping. It is basically as smarter version of 4X4. The problem with it is it doesn't translate well to large trucks or large SUV's due to mechanical constraints. So you won't usually see it on say a ford F250. However if you don't need the large trucks carrying capacity an AWD cross over or mid to small sized SUV might be a great option.
Locking difs- Just so you know what salesman might talk to you about. A locking differential means that you can lock the two wheels together so that they turn at the same speed and with the same power. The differential allows your wheels to spin at different speeds so that you can go around corners (ie inside wheel travels less distance in a turn and must go slower) However this is a problem if one wheel is off the ground or in a no traction situation because it will deliver all of the power to that wheel and your other wheel that is sitting on the ground will do nothing. Hard core off road vehicles like jeeps have the ability to lock the difs for extreme situations when even 4X4 won't get you out. Unless you are doing some crazy off roading you probably don't need locking difs.
Ground clearance- This is the amount of space from the ground to the undercarriage of the vehicle. Typically large trucks will have the most and crossovers and then cars the least. This is really only important if you are going over crazy undulating terrain, for most snow and ice situations it is not important unless you are trying to go through really deep snow.