Here’s the recent news from Kristin Kimball at Essex Farm:

“The harvest wagon is stacked high with heavy, red-ripe tomatoes today. This is probably the climax of tomato season. The drizzle and humidity we had this week will accelerate the growth of the various blights and viruses that creep up the vines and put an end to production, so, think about winter and how good those red jars will look on your pantry shelf, and take many many tomatoes home for sauce, salsa, frozen whole tomatoes, or whatever form of preservation your inner squirrel desires.

Speaking of the inner squirrel, it’s a putting-up week in the farmhouse kitchen. I have a quart of our favorite fermented hot sauce already in the refrigerator. This is a big heat, big flavor cayenne ferment, but the heat fades during storage, so by spring it will be fairly mild. Tomorrow, I’m going to take advantage of the confluence of daikon, napa cabbage, cayenne and scallions in the share to make a good supply of kimchi. (If you are looking for an easy kimchi tutorial, the kitchn.com has a good one.)

Basil is peaking now, so if there is any left over after distro I will blend it with garlic, salt and oil, freeze it in ice cube trays, then pop it into ziplocks to store in the freezer. I’ll do the same with cilantro. This year I have to remember to label the ziplocks so I don’t land in Italy when I’m aiming for Mexico. No matter how much basil and cilantro I freeze in this way, it’s never enough….” Continue Reading this Essex Farm Note.