DIG IT! News from Snipes Farm

Welcome to News about Your Community Farm!

February 2026

After years of mostly mild winters, this has been a humbling one. Here at the farm, we have marveled at the foxes, deer, cardinals, chickadees, and squirrels enduring it all. The first flowers, the witch hazel and snowdrops, have begun to bloom, emerging from the ice and snow. A sign that spring is on its way!

Seeds have arrived and the farmers have been clearing greenhouses for crops to come-the first sowing of scallions, lettuce and parsley is this week!

The school garden team has been collaborating with school administrators to find new ways connect students and curriculum to the natural world outside their doors. The goal for 2026 is to involve students, teachers, and parents more in the weekly care of the 4 gardens we coordinate to learn and grow together.

Architectural plans for the Big Red Barn renovation are nearly complete. We are so excited to make progress on our future community center!

We are excited to have returning and new camper registrations arrive every week and to continue to make great plans for the 2026 season. Learn more or register for Farm Camp here.

Consider helping local children who could not otherwise afford to attend with a donation to the scholarship fund.

$ 232 sponsors a child for a half week

$ 465 sponsors a child for one week

$ 3720 sponsors all eight weeks of camp.

Any amount can make a difference. You can donate here. Thank you!

The Joy of Singing at Snipes Farm Summer Camp

The magic of Snipes Farm Day Camp, unfolds with the power of song. For 18 years, campers, staff and the Snipes family have added songs to the repertoire. “We start each day with a morning circle under grand shade trees with singing,” says camp director Melanie Douty-Snipes. "A song shifts us from our usual lives into the special community we make together."

"The Princess Pat", "Bumble Bee Tuna" , "It's a 60's Party"and "Alligator Song"are silly songs that easily inspire participation, laughter, and get everyone up and moving.

From the big morning circle, to "bunk circle" (age group), on the way to the woods, berry picking or creek singing can be heard echoing on the farm. Campers also share songs at the talent shows.

“I love to sing at camp,” shares 10-year-old camper Mia adds, “My favorite is 'I Love the Mountains' , "The Littlest Worm" and 'Alice the Camel"-sung every Wednesday, on hump day, for all of the years of camp.

Singing goes beyond entertainment. Our longest living song "All Earth's Critters (Got a Place in the Choir"), and "We're All a Family Under One Sky" celebrate community. "This Pretty Planet" and "My Head is in the Sky Sky Sky" are about our wonderful home. The Doodlidoo Song is likely the sweetest song that we often end our camp days with. Songs can give us hope, and help us to feel peaceful.

"I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas" and the "Happy Wanderer" are 2 old fashioned songs that we love and dust off every year. "Rattlin' Bog" and "Pizza Man" are our truly epic songs that whip us up rousingly. Both take considerable concentration to keep up with all the verses and it is so fun to get to the end!

Campers and staff help to lead them. Our camp songs are not just melodies; they are expressions of creativity, and connection. Singing brings a joy of shared experience that gets passed along from year-to-year and lasts well beyond the summer days.

Learn more or register for Farm Camp and the Camp Leadership Program here. The Early Bird Deadline ends March 1st.

Donate to the camp scholarship by clicking the button below.

Send a Kid to Farm Camp

Volunteering on the Farm

In addition to our powerfully versatile SFEC staff, we are thrilled throughout the year to welcome volunteers on the farm.

Opportunities abound, ranging from single morning or afternoon Scout, corporate, and congregation group service project outings, to our ongoing season-long individuals who come regularly. Many hands make lighter work on the farm!

Our Green Team meets every 1st and 3rd Tuesday and the 2nd Saturday of the month, weather permitting, to maintain our natural/native areas on the farm. We tackle invasive weeds, care for native perennial plantings, tend nature pathways, and learn a lot together as we move through the farm.

Our new 2026 Farm Volunteer Team will meet every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month starting in April 2026 to assist with farming tasks. Volunteers can expect to have a hand in every aspect of growing food, from prepping beds, tending plants, weeding, and packing the vegetables that get delivered to local families in need.

Does your workplace have volunteer days? Retired and looking for a great community to make a difference? Find out more about our volunteer opportunities here.

Slowing the Flow: How Snipes Farm is Using Permaculture to Weather a Changing Climate

When talking with our farmers about their experiences growing and working in the growing fields at Snipes Farm and Education Center, it is clear that the climate is changing rapidly. As Farmer Ella Coscia commented, “With the amount of rain we had from May through July [2025], it's like living in a rain forest.” The snow we have had this winter also adds to the year's precipitation total, which affects our groundwater and aquifer supplies.

In the winter of 2022, members of the Snipes family, alongside farming staff, began learning about permaculture, an approach to land management and whole systems thinking that has helped us understand how nature, the weather patterns, and our human choices all interact and impact the work we are trying to accomplish. Understanding how water moves on our land has been a vital part of this learning. “Our exposure to permaculture has really helped us understand where the highest point of the farm is. The more we can do to slow and sink water in swales as it goes downward and plant on the contour of the land, the more we replenish the water table under the farm,” stated Susan Snipes.

Snipes Farm and Education Center is well situated on Class A soil with two different creeks, Jordan’s Creek and Rock Run, running through the property. Historically, this has been a huge benefit and has allowed our ancestors to successfully keep a farm going with easy access to water for irrigation.

The downside is that the landscape surrounding the farm has changed drastically in the last 75 years as apartment complexes, housing developments, and parking lots have been built. These two streams are vital parts of our local watershed, and millions of gallons of water flow through the farm each year. Water management has become a much bigger topic as we “work to protect our vegetable crops from erosion and our stream beds from scouring,” Susan commented. Rain gardens, natural meadows, road swales, and bio retention basins are now active parts of our farm landscape as we work to slow our water down and give it a chance to soak into the aquifers rather than racing straight to our streams and leaving the property.

Volunteers working on stream bank revitalization in 2022.

A full creek after a big rain storm.

The Bio-Retention basin full of water after a big rain storm.

The crew building the Tiny Forest rain garden in 2024.

The same rain garden full of water after a big rain storm.

You can be a part of something bigger. Donate to Snipes Farm and Education Center and help us feed the food-insecure. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of those in need.

Help support hunger relief partnerships

About Snipes Farm & Education Center

Snipes Farm & Education Center is a 7th-generation, 150-acre working organic farm located in Lower Bucks County, PA, with fields, woods, gardens, and a pristine creek. We endeavor as a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization to model and teach sustainable farming, provide nutrition education and hunger relief, build community, and reconnect people to the land. We are located at 890 W. Bridge Street in Morrisville, PA, just across the Delaware River from Trenton, NJ. Visit www.snipesfarm.org

Phone: (215) 295-1138

Send Us A Message

Keep in Touch!