Homegrown Strawberry Ice Cream

The ideal plan for just-picked, in-season strawberries is to systematically find a million ways to use them until the end of May. This is the point at which you finally just can't stand to see another dang strawberry until next year rolls around. We're not there yet, so let the strawberry fest continue!

The row of strawberry plants at Steve's farm is going strong with lots of daughter pants popping up, which means that there will easily be some ready to be transplanted to get ready for next year. We made this ice cream to showcase these sweet, pesticide-free beauties. This is super-simple, comes together in no time, and seconds are just about impossible to resist.

(Pick your own here.)

Homegrown Strawberry Ice Cream

1 1/2 cups strawberries

1/2 cup cane sugar

1 cup heavy whipping cream (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
1 cup 2% milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder or scraped vanilla bean
pinch of Maldon sea salt flakes

Hull and slice strawberries until you have 1 1/2 cups ready. Place berries and sugar into a medium sauce pan on medium heat for 3-5 minutes. Set them aside to cool. Whisk cream, milk, vanillas, and salt. Mash cooled strawberry mixture with a potato masher whisk into to the milk. Pour into your ice cream maker and let it churn for about 20 minutes. Transfer ice cream, which will be soft, to a container and let it harden in the freezer for at least 3 hours.