With fresh native strawberries almost in season, it's time for another favorite family recipe.

I was just going through my old recipe box that was hand-painted by my first mother-in-law, Irene Parks, a lo-o-o-ng time ago. I've probably moved 20 times since then but somehow I've kept, and used it for all these years. Never had another recipe box.

So anyway I was going through it to come up with an idea for the next food column and I came across my recipe for strawberry pie. It's almost as old as the box. About five minutes later there was a comment on my Facebook page from my good friend, Sue Witt, about my chocolate cake story. “What about your strawberry pie? I wouldn't say no to a piece of this though,” she posted. It was meant to be. A couple minutes later up popped a comment from another old friend, Jeannie Whitestone Casey: “I love strawberry pie, I hope you put up your recipe.”

So I repeat. It was meant to be.

I'm pretty sure my mother got this one from an old cookbook put out by local women in and around Cushing, where my family cottage is. It's another easy recipe but its presentation is gorgeous and guess what else? Yup. It is one of the best desserts ever. Especially on the Fourth of July, when fresh native strawberries are red, sweet, ripe and plentiful, but really, with the ones from away that you can get in Hannaford now, and even in the middle of December, it’s not at all bad.

So anyway, strawberry pie has been a favorite summertime dessert at my family cottage in Cushing for as long as I can remember. Depending on the number of friends and relatives hanging around, sometimes it takes two. And as a follow-up to a typical summer meal of lobsters and corn on the cob, and massive amounts of cold white, or not so cold red wine, well, you get the idea.

It's actually pretty similar to strawberry shortcake. But with the thin pie crust, as opposed to the buttery biscuit-like shortcakes I like with my strawberry shortcake, the pie is practically diet food. Just kidding. With the shortening in the crust and the sugar in the strawberry filling and the mound of whipped cream on top, it's really just another fattening dessert. Albeit a ridiculously delectable gorgeous one.

I gave the recipe to Sue Witt a few years ago and it has become her and Tom's son, Sam's, favorite dessert. Luckily for Tom’s, Sue’s and daughter Ellie's diets, Sam is all grown up and not living with them. But he is back in Boothbay Harbor for the summer, and he is still a little needy. At least for strawberry pie. If you saw it, you would be too.

Sue said it has become their traditional Fourth of July dessert. She doesn’t put the (real, duh) whipped cream on top until the pie is served, so everyone gets to take as much as they want. “We give it to Sam last because he heaps it on.”

So here’s the recipe. You can do it now, or wait for the fresh native strawberries. Your call.

One quart of strawberries - cut up half and throw them in a saucepan with 3/4 cup sugar (maybe less depending on the sweetness of the berries), mixed with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, a dash of salt and 1 or 2 teaspoons of lemon juice.

Crush them up some and cook til thickened. Cool slightly.

Spread 1/2 in baked pie crust. Cut up the other half of fresh strawberries and throw them on top, then spread the rest of cooked over them.

Make fresh whipped cream, preferably with some fresh-squeezed lemon juice, making it ‘whup’ cream, and of course a little sugar, and spread over cooled pie. Or let people pile their own on, like Sam Witt does.

Of course, it just dawned on me that I'm going to have to go to Hannaford now to get some of those non-native strawberries and make one for pictures. And heavy cream, and a lemon for the whup cream to pile on top. And Pillsbury pie crust, because I’m not lazy about a lot of things when it comes to cooking, but I am lazy about making pie crust. Sue Mello isn’t, but I am. Then I'll have to eat it. But I can probably drum up some help with that.

It also just dawned on me, as it's supposed to be around 70 degrees for the next couple days, that I won't be donning any tight little fitted tops for a while. Maybe it's time to start writing about some more healthful, less fattening foods than pizza, biscuits, pies, cakes, fried foods, whipped cream, etc.

But don't hold your breath.