Oregon is the world's leading blackberry producer. Reason enough to live here, no? Shown here is a cultivar called, appropriately enough, Obsidian. My hands-down favorite, though, is the deep purple boysenberry, a blackberry with some rasberry genes. If you don't eat all of them straight from the box, they are delicious in this rustic, free-form tart: 

foolproof pastry

(recipe improvised courtesy of improviser extraordinaire Sally Schneider's A New Way to Cook):

1 c. unbleached flour

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp cold unsalted butter

and (the secret ingrediant) 3 tbsp reduced fat sour cream

Combine dry ingrediants. Cut in butter with pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Chill 15 minutes. Add sour cream, still using pastry cutter. Knead and squeeze 7 to 8 times until it holds together. Gather and flatten into 1" flat disc, wrap, and chill for at least 30 minutes. Can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 1 month.  

This makes enough for one 9 or 10" tart, but I usually divide it into 3 or 4 discs and make individual (well, two-person) tarts. I roll each disc to about 5 inches, then sprinkle the center with a combination of 1 tbsp flour and 1/2 tbsp sugar. Heap the center with berries and wrap/pinch the dough up to form a rustic cup. 

Bake in preheated 400-degree oven for 15 minutes. Heaven.