Snipes Farm in Morrisville Breaks Ground on Its Outdoor Learning Pavilion
The Pavilion Will Enable Snipes Farm & Education Center to Expand Its Mission of Reconnecting People to the Earth
Morrisville, PA
June 12, 2023
Jonathan Snipes, executive director of the Snipes Farm & Education Center in Morrisville, PA, paused in the shade of a large oak tree as a construction crew of five men broke ground on construction of the Outdoor Learning Pavilion at the Snipes Farm & Education Center.
The 30-by-40-foot pavilion will be a sizeable structure, with a chalet style roof and a wood-plank floor that will seat 75 people comfortably. It will have ceiling fans and electricity.
Except for the sloping, overhanging roof, the pavilion will be open to the farm around it, with no side walls to block the movement of air, shade and sunlight or the cheery chirp of birds.
“We have dreamed of this for a number of years,” said Jonathan Snipes, executive director of the Snipes Farm & Education Center (SFEC). “It’s a perfect location. We are thinking of this as an outdoor classroom. It will allow people of all ages to gather in the natural setting of the farm, close to the farm fields where our organic growing happens, the activity space where the public gathers, and the Nature Trail and our woodlands.”
The 11th generation Quaker farmers are modest stewards of the earth. Yet, their ambition is anything but modest.
The pavilion’s construction is a landmark project in the farm’s ongoing transformation from a one-time commercial nursery to a non-profit dedicated to reconnecting people to the land on 150 acres of intelligently maintained farm fields and natural open space.
Jonathan said the pavilion gives the farm a new tool to use in extending its mission-driven services to more people.
The nonprofit farm’s mission is to model and teach sustainable farming, to build community and reconnect people to the land. Seventy percent of the organic food it grows is distributed locally for hunger relief.
“We are the last working farm in the immediate area, and we are surrounded by suburban development, so we see ourselves as an oasis and a community asset,” Jonathan explained.
“People come here not only for our farm products, but also to experience how we farm, using organic and sustainable methods and to see the connection between how we use the land and the natural systems that support life on earth, such as the woodlands, the wild animals, and especially the water systems – the creeks, the water table – and the soil.”
If Snipes Farm were to have a motto, it might be something like “back to the earth” or “small is beautiful.” It harkens back to a time when hundreds of small community farms dotted the southern Bucks County landscape, but it employs modern practices of sustainable farming and conservation of natural habitats.
The pavilion is expected to be ready for use by mid-summer, in time for it to be enjoyed by the hundreds of children who attend the farm’s annual summer nature camp.
Already surrounded by trees and farmland, the pavilion eventually will be buffered by native plants and flowers, carefully landscaped to fit into the natural surroundings.
In addition to being used as an outdoor learning center for children and adults, the pavilion is also expected to host occasional weddings, graduations, anniversaries and other such events.
“I think it’s going to be super popular,” Jonathan said, expressing gratitude for the skills of the work crew laying the foundation behind him.
He said the farm is also grateful for the support of three organizations whose generous grants made the $165,000 pavilion project possible: Crown Castle, the Robert F. Schumann Foundation, the Caulkins Family Foundation, and members of the SFEC Board of Trustees.
