One Great . . . strawberry recipe for spring

Strawberry season is coming so fast, it may arrive ahead of the Easter baskets this year. The best of the local berries won't arrive for a couple of weeks, but there will be berries in the stores before you know it.

Nigel Slater's magnificent new book "Ripe: A Cook in the Orchard," captures the joy of fresh fruit grown in all seasons. When it landed on my desk last week, I immediately flipped to strawberries and found this very simple version of strawberry ice cream. It's so basic, you don't need an ice cream freezer.

Strawberry Ice

From "Ripe," by Nigel Slater (Ten Speed Press, $40).

1 pound very ripe strawberries
1/2 cup superfine sugar (see note)
1 1/4 cups heavy cream

Rinse the berries quickly under cold, running water and remove their leaves. Cut each berry into three or four slices, then put them in a bowl, sprinkle with the sugar and set aside for an hour.

Lightly whip the cream. You want it to be thick enough to lie in folds rather than stiff enough to stand in peaks.

Put the strawberries, sugar and any juice from the bottom of the dish into a food processor and whiz until smooth, then stir gently into the cream. (How thoroughly you blend the two is up to you. Slater notes that he likes to leave a few swirls of unmixed cream in the mixture.)

Transfer to a freezer-safe box, level the top, cover with a lid or a piece of plastic wrap or wax paper, and freeze for three to four hours. Stir occasionally as it freezes, bringing the outside edges into the middle.

Remove from the freezer about 15 to 20 minutes before serving to bring it up to temperature.

NOTE: Slater calls for superfine sugar, which blends more easily. You can find it in some stores, or you can pulse granulated sugar in a food processor a few times. However, you also can try making this with granulated sugar, since most it will dissolve while the strawberries sit.

Yield: 4 servings.

It's pick-your-own farm time

Could spring get any springier out there? That means it's almost time for PYO strawberries, followed by peaches, muscadines and right on through apples and pumpkins.

If you're a farmer in Western or Piedmont N.C. with a Pick Your Own patch, please email your information to me at kpurvis@charlotteobserver.com Include a daytime number where I can reach you, picking hours, crops and prices if you have them.

If you're looking for a place to pick your own food, stay tuned. Our annual list will go up online and in print on April 27.

Strawberries, baby

When I get the first sighting of freshly picked strawberries, I become like Capt. Queeg in "The Caine Mutiny," rubbing my paws together and chanting "The strawberries, yes, the strawberries!" It's time at last. I shot this picture Saturday at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market, right after tucking a basket of berry beauties in my bag. (Of course I paid for them. What do you take me for?)

The Observer's annual list of pick-your-own farms runs tomorrow, and we'll keep it up through the fall to point you toward everything from strawberries to blueberries to pumpkins. Go to www.charlotteobserver.com/food after midnight or so tonight to find it. And check out the cool Google mapping software, put together by my co-worker Ted Mellnik.

In tomorrow's paper, look for Andrea Weigl's story and recipes celebrating strawberries, along with the print version of the list.

Most of the farms I talked to last week say they expect to open the fields for picking by this weekend. Strawberry smoothies, strawberry pies, strawberries eaten by the bowlful. The strawberries, yes, the strawberries. And then the asparagus, and the blueberries, and the peaches, ah yes, the peaches. It's time, folks.