Berries. They mark the beginning of summer, and the end, and right now in the Northwest, it's berry season. It's berry season from about June through early October, here. Right now, you can still find lucious local strawberries, and the blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, huckleberries, and marion berries are available as well, though some require a bit more effort to find than others.

Strawberries start appearing in the Northwest in June, and with luck last until almost Labor day. There are several varieties of the domestic berries, and two varieties of native "wild" strawberries, one of them the hardy alpine strawberry with small berries and leaves but intense flavor.

There are three basic types of blackberries grown in the Northwest, especially in Oregon and Washington. There is a native, trailing variety. There is the so-called Evergreen blackberry, R. lacianatus, introduced in the mid-1800s to Oregon from England, where it is a native wild blackberry. It quickly spread throughout the Pacific Northwaest by birds. Then there is the invasive non-native Himalyan Blackberry, actually a German variety known as R. procerus. This is the common blackberry that is ubiquitous along roadsides, or the edges of human habitation, with thick canes, and a habit of taking over anywhere it finds a crevice.

Raspberries unlike blackberries and dewberries, their close relatives, have a hollow core; the berry pulls away from the vine, and leaves a pale plug behind. If it doesn't come away easily, it isn't ripe. Leave that berry on the vine for later, and find one that's truly ripe.

Black raspberries are a North American native, sometimes called blackcaps by growers, they really are a black Raspberry, complete with a hollow core.

Marion berries are a Chehalem blackberry and Olallie blackberry cross, and dubbed the Marion blackberry or Marionberry by their crosser, George F. Waldo in 1956. They're especially successful as a berry crop in Western Oregon, particularly in their namesake, Marion County.

Boysenberries were a cross between a European raspberry (Rubus idaeus), a Common blackberry (Rubus fruticosus), and a Loganberry (Rubus × loganobaccus), made in the early 1900s by a farmer named Boysen. Walter Knott, from Southern California or Knott's Berry Farm fame rescued a few straggling vines from Boysen's deserted farm, and began to cultivate the berries.

Loganberries were the result of the first recorded deliberate attempt to create a blackberry cross. In the 1880s, Judge J.H. Logan in Santa Cruz, California, began to deliberately cross two blackberries. He did not realize that a raspberry cane was growing right next to his two blackberry cultivars. All three canes flowered and fruited, and Judge Logan planted their seeds. The seeds resulted in 50 plants, one of which was similar to the blackberry, but both larger and stronger; this cultivar became known as the Loganberry, a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry. The other plants were what became known as the Mammoth Blackberry. The Loganberry, while a deep red and abundant producer is typically too tart to eat on their own, but fine when used for pies or wine—and a fabulous root-stock, and cross.

Huckleberries are native to North America, and generally belong to one of two varieties, both members of the family Ericaceae, in two separate species, Vaccinium, the red huckleberry found especially in coastal California and parts north, including Washington and Oregon and Gaylussacia, a generally smaller and darker species. Huckleberries, even the red ones, are frequently mistaken for blueberries, though they are easily distinguished. Huckleberries have 10 larger seeds in each berry, while blueberries have many tiny, almost unnoticeable seeds (nobody pits blueberries). Berries, even on the same bush, can range in color from a dark, almost cranberry red, to deep purple, with blue somewhere in the middle. Washington State's Gifford Pinchot National Forest is known for its many huckleberry bushes, and issues permits for picking.

Blueberries have been commercially grown in Washington and Oregon for about fifty years, but in the last ten, they've taken off. Blueberries, long a hit for their amazing flavor, durability, and multitude of uses, are praised for their high levels of antioxidants. They are far more palatable than cranberries, easier to eat, and just about as high in antioxidants.