put up verb phrase To put away, store.
1969 DARE FW Addit (KY) = to store, put away, or put in storage as in a closet; (CwNC) put it up = put it away.
[DARE put up v phr 1 chiefly South, South Midland]
—Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English
I’m glad the dictionary included the phrase put up, but it’s hard to fathom the shortness of the entry since putting up is something I’ve taken part in from the time I helped Granny as a girl. Not to mention the fact that the entry really doesn’t address the process of preserving food directly.
This is the time of the year for putting up.
We’ve canned all week and today we hope to put up corn.
Every summer I go from anxiously awaiting the garden bounty to enjoying eating it and putting up this and that to feeling like I’m overwhelmed with it all!
Although it’s a lot of work we’ll be so glad we did it when the cold wind blows and we have good things to eat that with the Good Lord’s help we grew, harvested, and put up.
Last night’s video: Visiting the Mountain for the First Time – From My Highest Hill 1.
Tipper
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“Putting up” is hard work but reaps such rich rewards. Putting up beans, peas, corn, tomatoes, okra, squash, cucumbers, potatoes means mighty fine eating the rest of the year. Some years the vegetables come in all at once and it seemed like we’d never get them all canned or frozen or pickled. Good hard work that instills worthy values in all involved (whether they’ll admit it then or not).