MONTREAL - There are raspberries in heaven, the writer Anita Diamant declared in a rhapsodic essay about what, to her, is the most perfect food.

"In fact, up in heaven, raspberries are so plentiful and cheap that God and the angels take them for granted," she wrote in an ode called Heaven on Earth, an essay in her fine 2005 collection Pitching My Tent (Scribner).

"After dinner the heavenly hosts say things like, 'Raspberries and cream for dessert?' 'No, thanks,' reply the cherubs. 'We've been snacking on them all afternoon.' "

Furry rubies, Diamant calls raspberries: caviar of fruits. In the chill of the produce section, she tells readers, she can walk past them. "But at the farmer's market, where they are heaped in warm, open pints, I am undone and there is no price I won't pay."

Quebec raspberries are, indeed, heaped in warm, open pints these days in public markets and farmer's markets. They made their appearance 10 days to two weeks early this year, coaxed to ripen by the warm, dry weather we had in the spring. They're plentiful - and relatively affordable. They generally go for about $3 per 250 mL (about one cup), although I paid just $4 for 500 mL, or about two cups, at a west-end produce store this week.

To Diamant, a Boston-based writer best known for her novel The Red Tent, the raspberry is almost irresistible, its "extreme edibility" inviting us "to make a direct line between hand and mouth." She likes her raspberries plain: she acknowledges that there is a place for raspberry jam, if only to remember the glory of the fruit when summer is long past, but otherwise believes that "the idea of cooking raspberries seems almost criminal."

Raspberries, to her, "are the most fragile of foods. Even a thoughtless word can bruise them. Once ripe, they are in a rush to be consumed -but not too cold. Never, never right out of the refrigerator."

Indeed, raspberries are fragile. They don't travel well and it is best, as soon as one gets them home, to store them in a single layer on a platter in the refrigerator, or to eat them right away, mindful of their lovely tart-sweet taste.

One of the joys of raspberries is the way in which they remind us "that paradise is visible, touchable, and testable," Diamant writes. "Paradise is present, provided that you don't just toss a handful into your mouth and gobble it down without feeling its almost imperceptible crush, without savouring the fragrance as the rosy juice dribbles sweetly by and by."

The appearance of local raspberries is a sign that summer is truly nigh, although there is still a preponderance of imported American raspberries about; the markets are really the best places to find local berries.

Raspberries are not just good: they're good for us. A cup of raspberries has fewer than 70 calories; it provides 41 per cent of our daily vitamin C requirement and 27 per cent of the fibre. Raspberries also contain folic acid and magnesium.

The best time to harvest them is in the morning, according to Quebec's association of growers of strawberries and raspberries; they're sweeter then. The growers also say raspberries shouldn't be washed, because water makes them soft; roll them gently on a damp cloth to clean them and dislodge insects that might have found their way inside the fruit.

To enjoy raspberries long past the end of the season in October, set them in a single layer on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer. Once they freeze, slip them into plastic bags that seal well and put them back in the freezer.

As with strawberries, there are different varieties of raspberries -some a deeper red than others, some hardier than others. Yellow raspberries are seen occasionally, although they tend to be more fragile than red raspberries, growers say, and the bushes produce less fruit -at least in these parts.

Last week, black raspberries were spotted here and there, but they tasted less sweet and less juicy than the red -more like blackberries than raspberries.

sschwartz@thegazette.canwest.com