Always Watchful For The Elk

Farm News

The weather is calling for lots of sun and highs in the low 60’s, ideal for transplanting tender veggies as the cooler, but dry days will afford us to catch up. If we have our perfect farming week, we will have two transplanters in motion as we head into this nice stretch of weather. The last few weeks have been quite wet, great for making up the record dry days in March, but hard for getting our plants in the ground.

The greenhouses have been a wonderful haven for our seedlings. We are now on our third planting of the year and we need to get our second planting fully in the fields. We filled up one side of the greenhouse with summer squash and cucumbers and will soon start in on our winter squash. All of these flats are hand seeded and take much more time than our speedy vacuum seeder. However, we do enjoy the feel of the seed in our hands; placing them one by one in the soil appeals to our connection to the plants.

Our first harvest is in reach next week with radishes getting close to perfect. As we get excited for growth, we are always watchful for the elk. This year we are expecting the elk to be a bit more challenging as reports of their damage is already looming. Northeast Oregon has had lots of crop damage and trampling. As you may remember, the heavy snows in January and February made foraging conditions for the elk almost impossible in the mountains.

Instead, the elk gathered more in the valleys and joined some of the resident populations, increasing a great deal of pressure on food resources. We love our fellow elk, but we want to ensure your veggies arrive at your tables, so we will start putting up our elk fences next week and remain vigilant so there is no hoof traffic.

Don’t forget to find us on Instagram @fullcirclefarms.
Wendy