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Original poster

The dying art of swede carving

142 replies

MildGreenDairyLiquid · 30/10/2024 12:58

A lot is said about traditional crafts dying out - thatching, stonemasonry, stained glass. But what about swede carving?

I’m pretty sure I didn’t see a pumpkin in this country until I was 35.

Before that it was the humble swede, now cruelly forgotten.

Tastes nicer too.

OP posts:
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7
Demonhunter · 30/10/2024 21:24

Lemonade2011 · 30/10/2024 21:22

Also the plastic masks with the little breathing hole Halloween had a smell back then, I loved it. Smell was likely neep but I remember the bin bags smelling too.

Oh God yes, I forgot about those masks 🤣 you had the tight, thin, cutting in your skin elastic mark round your face all the next day 🤣

Lemonade2011 · 30/10/2024 21:22

Also the plastic masks with the little breathing hole Halloween had a smell back then, I loved it. Smell was likely neep but I remember the bin bags smelling too.

Demonhunter · 30/10/2024 21:21

Our dressing up too was a black bin bag with a head and arm holes, a cardboard witches hat and those plastic witch fingers 😂

Elodie9 · 30/10/2024 21:18

Always a turnip , sorry swede, for us growing up in the NE.
Candle wax dripped inside and the singed bagie smelled great.

n

Demonhunter · 30/10/2024 21:15

I was just telling my kids the other day about carving swedes/turnips and having those at Halloween. My dad used to put a string handle on for us to carry around like lanterns. We called them tuggies round here haha.

mamaduckbone · 30/10/2024 21:11

I remember my dad attempting this one year - I thought I was imagining it. Love mashed swede but I can't even imagine how you'd hollow one out.

samedifferent · 30/10/2024 20:59

As a Scot I think pumpkins are great!
Neeps were hell to carve.

UtterlyOtterly · 30/10/2024 20:47

Swedes are the proper thing, pumpkins are just a new-fangled nonsense.

Start a week early, hack out a bit a day with a sharp knife, check your first aid box is topped up and don't even think about a risk assessment.

AllProperTeaIsTheft · 30/10/2024 20:38

HoundsMamma · 30/10/2024 20:27

Same here, I’m 54 and grew up in London and it was always pumpkins. I did know of turnips/swede carving but thought it was something people did way in the past. Then I married an Irishman and moved to Wales and found out that isn’t the case. Maybe it’s more regional even in England. Obviously Ireland, Wales & Scotland seem more traditional turnip than pumpkin, but maybe some parts of England are too? Maybe us soft south east folk wimped out on turnips early? 😃

Show quote history

I've now lived in the NW for 10 years and it's all pumpkins here too and I've never heard anyone mention that it used to be turnips. Maybe it's a NE England and Scotland thing?

LillyLeaf · 30/10/2024 20:33

I can't believe my poor Dad would carve a swede (although we called it a turnip). We carried them with a real candle. I don't see children carrying pumpkins now?

itslikecakesbutitsnotcakes · 30/10/2024 20:31

Turnips were the original 'Jack o' lanterns'.
And fucking terrifying hey we're. Look at this specimen!

www.atlasobscura.com/articles/turnip-jack-o-lanterns-are-the-root-of-all-evil

The dying art of swede carving
HoundsMamma · 30/10/2024 20:27

AllProperTeaIsTheft · 30/10/2024 18:52

I'm 53 and from the SE of England. We had pumpkins not swedes when I was a kid. I didn't know people carved swedes until I first read it on MN years ago.

Same here, I’m 54 and grew up in London and it was always pumpkins. I did know of turnips/swede carving but thought it was something people did way in the past. Then I married an Irishman and moved to Wales and found out that isn’t the case. Maybe it’s more regional even in England. Obviously Ireland, Wales & Scotland seem more traditional turnip than pumpkin, but maybe some parts of England are too? Maybe us soft south east folk wimped out on turnips early? 😃

Willyoujustbequiet · 30/10/2024 20:27

Gall10 · 30/10/2024 13:07

In the north east we call swedes turnips and we call turnips swedes!
in north Northumberland we call turnips (Swedes!) bagies …confused? You soon will be!

This

They are turnips up here. Always have been, always will be. This is a hill I will die on lol.

It's turnip lanterns and haggis, neeps and tatties. Not swedes!

RaraRachael · 30/10/2024 20:27

I call a swede a turnip or neep.
The little ones that seem to be called turnips elsewhere don't appear here much but my dad used to call them nippy neeps.

Gingerkittykat · 30/10/2024 20:25

MrsGhastlyCrumb · 30/10/2024 20:16

Has anyone been on yet to inform you that the proper name for these is ´neeps'?

Neeps or turnip or tumshie!

Carving them was a bastard and having to eat the hollowed out insides the next day was torture.

Still nicer than pumpkin lanterns though.

Gingerkittykat · 30/10/2024 20:23

downwindofyou · 30/10/2024 19:08

A turnip? Aren't they really small?

Show quote history

No. I always thought that swede was the English word for turnip. We still call the big ones turnip even if the supermarkets call it a swede.

MrsGhastlyCrumb · 30/10/2024 20:16

Has anyone been on yet to inform you that the proper name for these is ´neeps'?

RaraRachael · 30/10/2024 20:15

We used to make "neepie lanterns" from turnips when we were kids in the 70s. It was a bloody nightmare.
Never saw a pumpkin back in those days.
My kids can't believe how hard it was compared to nowadays.

powershowerforanhour · 30/10/2024 20:14

"Even scarier with a tinge of blood on it from when the knife slipped and sliced your finger open. The flesh wound then went on to enhance the authenticity of your costume.
Those were indeed, 'The Days.'"

We had a cattle hoof paring knife. I've still got a scar on my little finger 35 years later.
I'd forgotten the smell of burnt turnip, add the candle falling over.

purplebeansprouts · 30/10/2024 20:13

Bookish123 · 30/10/2024 20:09

Hop tu Naa here and the local farm carves out the middle of the moots with power tools ready for the kids to carve a design on the outside with a blunt butter knife

Ah bringing swede carving into the insta era clever!

Bookish123 · 30/10/2024 20:09

Hop tu Naa here and the local farm carves out the middle of the moots with power tools ready for the kids to carve a design on the outside with a blunt butter knife

Carriemac · 30/10/2024 20:09

My hot tip is to use an oyster shucker

The dying art of swede carving
Melroses · 30/10/2024 20:06

We spent an entire afternoon trying to hollow out swedes in Junior 3 (Y5 these days). Thankfully someone had brought in a Stanley knife.

Even the teacher was surprised at how hard they were 🤔

I remember having them at Brownies, but someone must have done the hard bit already.

purplebeansprouts · 30/10/2024 20:02

MrsTerryPratchett · 30/10/2024 19:37

We couldn't find pumpkins to carve. I suggested Swedes and DD chose a fucking MELON instead. Wimp.

I love this I'm going to do a melon next year

TroysMammy · 30/10/2024 20:00

LushLemonTart · 30/10/2024 13:00

Oh that delicious smell if singed swede. Dad used to put a proper candle in. Don't know if tealights existed in the 70s?

My experience too however swedes are tiny this year.