Locally grown berries: A superior summer taste

If you want to start trying to eat more local, seasonal foods, berries are a good place to start. That's because you will be instantly rewarded with a noticeably superior taste experience.

Berries really express what foodies call the "terror" ("ter-wah"). You can taste in them the results of the soil and climate in which they were grown. Even if you don't think you have a great palate, a local berry is going to make you sit up and take notice.

Rowan Jacobsen, author of the soon-to-be-published "American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields" (Bloomsbury), says the reason local berries (and tomatoes and peaches) are so far superior to those grown afar is "the bruise factor": Berries just don't ship well. Anyone who has purchased a pint of raspberries at the supermarket and returned home to find that half of them are smushed knows exactly what he means.

Obviously, the best way to sample local berries is to grow them yourself or pick them at a local farm. If that's not practical, support your local growers at a farmers market or farm stand. The berries you eat on the day they've been picked will provide you with some of the best taste memories of your life.

Generally speaking, you don't want to do too much to berries. Rinse them gently, stem them (and slice them) if needed, and serve them plain or with some rich yogurt, heavy cream or creme fraiche.

But when you have grown or picked a ton of them, you might start looking for recipes. Again, you want to give berries the simple treatment. You want to showcase all that "terror."

The recipe on this page, for blackberry cobbler, is from a mouthwatering book called "Cider Beans, Wild Greens and Dandelion Jelly," a celebration of Southern Appalachian cooking by Joan E. Aller (2010 Andrews McMeel). The free-form tart is from my own files.

• Marialisa Calta is the author of "Barbarians at the Plate: Taming and Feeding the American Family" (2005 Perigee). More at marialisacalta.com.