Here's how you can quickly get testing or developing against the cookbook thanks to Vagrant and Berkshelf.
vagrant plugin install vagrant-berkshelf
vagrant plugin install vagrant-cachier
vagrant plugin install vagrant-omnibus
git clone git://github.com/afklm/chef_COOKBOOK.git
cd chef-COOKBOOK
vagrant up BOX # BOX being centos5, centos6, debian7, fedora18, fedora19, fedora20, freebsd9, ubuntu1204, ubuntu1210, ubuntu1304, or ubuntu1310
You can then SSH into the running VM using the vagrant ssh BOX command.
The VM can easily be stopped and deleted with the vagrant destroy command. Please see the official Vagrant documentation for a more in depth explanation of available commands.