blackberrying

And the thought of that old time came upon me like a flood — the winter games at the Cedars — the blackberrying and bilberrying upon the sunshiny summer moors […]

1859, Dinah Craik, A Life for a Life, Hurst and Blackett, published 1859, page 212

At that time there were no built-up areas round Harrow, and during one autumn we gathered enough blackberries for twenty-eight pounds of jam. I enjoyed the blackberrying, but I did not enjoy the walks, which averaged about five miles a day and might be over seven.

1948, Brian Lunn, Switchback: An Autobiography, Eyre & Spottiswoode, published 1948, page 20

In the days of Queen Anne, Dick explains, dissenting sects like the Presbyterians were under a ban and had to educate their children in the fields, behind the blackberry hedges, so in the blackberrying season, the children's lips and cheeks were stained black with the fruit.

1993, Michael Ignatieff, Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, published 1995, →ISBN, page 230