I looooooooove Sonoma County!  In the late summer, every morning that I walk the doggies, I come home with a bag of blackberries.  I have a rule with blackberry picking... if they don't FALL off of the vine, they aren't ripe enough.  This generally means that something must be done with them (well, often the bag is empty when I get home) immediately or else they will turn to mush within a few hours.  They are so ripe and plump with juice, that as they sit in a bowl or basket, the weight crushes the bottom layer.  It generally is not a problem to get rid of them that day (smoothies, yogurt topping, fruit salads, handfuls) although I truly think that pies and tarts are my favorite way to eradicate ripe berries.  For most fruit pies, I generally cook them for one hour at 425 degrees F.  This pie cooked a bit less than that (about 50 minutes) as it was a thin, open-face tart.   For the blackberry tart, I put 1 1/4 C flour into a bowl and mix it with a pinch of sea salt and about 2 tablespoons of sugar. I take my one (1/2 C) stick of butter which is very cold (I put it into the freezer for 10 minutes) onto a cutting board, and I cut the stick in fourths lengthwise, then dice it, to get little cubes.  I have made a habit of doing this because then you don't have to use a mixer or a food processor.  With my hands I break the little cubes up into tiny pieces throughout the flour, evenly crumbling it.  Then, I sprinkle in about 3 tablespoons of water from a cup that I have put water and ice into (the colder the water, the better!) and slowly press the dough into itself until it turns into a ball.  When you can gather and press it into a ball, stop mixing and flatten it to approximately a 5 inch disc and it into the freezer (if you want to use it soon) or fridge (if you will be using it tomorrow). I learned that the flakiness comes from the butter and flour not completely mixing, so it's good to see "marbling" of butter and flour! After the dough has firmed up for about 30 minutes, I roll it out to cover the dish I will be using.  If your "innards" of your pie are not too juicy, you can make a free-form tart by simply putting the filling in the middle of this flat crust and folding the sides over so that they form a small lip.  This is usually served in high end cafes and called "rustic fruit galette."  I call it "too lazy to make a nice pie crust," but they taste the same. For the filling, the recipe changes depending on the fruit.  When you have something with a lot of natural pectin, such as apples, you hardly need to add any thickener to the fruit.  For berries, I used about 3 Tablespoons of flour sprinkled over the fruit.  The same rule applies for sugar.  If you have a very ripe and sweet crop, you may use hardly any sugar at all.  I hand picked and hand selected these berries and I knew that each one was very sweet.  I only used about 2 tablespoons of sugar for my 3 cups of berries.  If I were using mixed berries or fruit that had a tartness to it, I would increase the sugar to up to 1/2 cup for 3 cups of fruit. Gently toss the flour and sugar into the fruit and pile it into the center of your pie crust.  If you are not pre-baking your crust, I always poke the bottom of the crust with a fork before adding the fruit, or else you may find that the center actually rises and forms an air pocket under the crust.  The last two touches, recommended by my Grammy, are always to dot the top of the pie with butter and brush the crust with an egg or milk wash.  I like the egg wash best.  Pies are truly a simple pleasure to make, and an extreme pleasure to eat!  crust: 1 1/4 C organic unbleached white flour 1 stick COLD organic pastured butter 1/2 t salt 2 T sugar (less if you like a more savory crust) 3 T ice cold water filling: 3 cups fresh fruit 2-3 T flour 2 T sugar