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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
FloralGums · 30/10/2024 19:59

downwindofyou · 30/10/2024 19:08

A turnip? Aren't they really small?

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Only the baby ones.

GripGetter · 30/10/2024 19:58

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!

Baffling!
Is bagie short for rutabaga?

FloralGums · 30/10/2024 19:58

We would use whatever was growing in the fields near us. It was usually sugar beet. The smell of as lovely when the candle burned it a little.
we didn’t do elaborate carving, more of a hollow for a candle stub.

cherrysonata · 30/10/2024 19:55

Oh that smell of singed swede! Takes me right back to my childhood.

purplebeansprouts · 30/10/2024 19:55

BrainWontWorkAnymore · 30/10/2024 19:09

It's never gone out of fashion for one of your neighbours

Strangely satisfying to watch

Brightredtulips · 30/10/2024 19:50

Always had turnips growing up for Halloween . Dad would carve them out and make string handles. We'd go guising with them , candle inside, wearing our home made costumes. They're take ages to make as so hard to carve out but so worth it. Very spooky looking.

MrsTerryPratchett · 30/10/2024 19:37

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

macshoto · 30/10/2024 19:37

Waterboatlass · 30/10/2024 13:08

Would a melon baller be tough enough? I feel like having a go. Pumpkins are great and I always make soup even out of carving ones but I'm getting a bit disillusioned with the crappy plastic horror merchandise decorations around. It would be nice to go trad

Dremmel might be better, if you have one!

stargirl1701 · 30/10/2024 19:36

@Jom222

I was reading this book to my Primary 2 class today.

The dying art of swede carving
BMW6 · 30/10/2024 19:35

I'm from Hampshire and they're swedes here, not turnips (much much smaller)

Kentuckycriedfrickin · 30/10/2024 19:34

Jom222 · 30/10/2024 19:25

I've waited decades for a random conversation about rutabaga and UK names for it.

My scottish grandparents called it tumshe (pron. tum-she), they were from Glasgow, came to america in the 1920's iirc.I grew up calling it that and still do today.

A friend whose family still had land on one of the hebrides islands and went there annually, had never heard that word for it.

Please mumsnet can anyone confirm this usage or was this just another old country thing corrupted on the voyage over?

I never knew these grandparents (who I was told wouldn't have approved of me and would've called me a foundling lol, I'm an adoptee but thats for another day)

Lastly I'd like to say that rutabaga jack o' lanterns are fucking terrifying and I'm going to try carving one next year. 🎃

I've never heard it called that but I'm from NE England and we call it a turnip even though it's really a swede.

ADesignForLife · 30/10/2024 19:26

Yup, I used to have swede lanterns well into the 90s. Mum refused to buy a pumpkin - she had a violent dislike to anything considered to be “too American”. My dad used to have to drill the bloody thing out.
In Somerset they use mangolds - or beets - as lanterns for Punkie Night, which is properly Hot Fuzz: calendarcustoms.com/articles/punky-night/

Jom222 · 30/10/2024 19:25

I've waited decades for a random conversation about rutabaga and UK names for it.

My scottish grandparents called it tumshe (pron. tum-she), they were from Glasgow, came to america in the 1920's iirc.I grew up calling it that and still do today.

A friend whose family still had land on one of the hebrides islands and went there annually, had never heard that word for it.

Please mumsnet can anyone confirm this usage or was this just another old country thing corrupted on the voyage over?

I never knew these grandparents (who I was told wouldn't have approved of me and would've called me a foundling lol, I'm an adoptee but thats for another day)

Lastly I'd like to say that rutabaga jack o' lanterns are fucking terrifying and I'm going to try carving one next year. 🎃

OneBadKitty · 30/10/2024 19:16

Igneococcus · 30/10/2024 15:23

You can even go neeps picking this year, proceeds go to charity:
https://www.scottishretailfoodanddrinkawards.com/lidl-neep-picking-patch/#:~:text='The%20Lidl%20Neep%20Patch'%20is,patch%20at%20Chatelherault%20Country%20Park.

Is that Tommy Robinson?

downwindofyou · 30/10/2024 19:08

QuestionableMouse · 30/10/2024 13:08

I have a turnip arriving today to carve. Slightly concerned about my fingers while doing it but I'm sure I'll survive 🤣

A turnip? Aren't they really small?

Tomatocutwithazigzagedge · 30/10/2024 18:56

Get thyself to Switzerland OP, where it's never gone out of fashion...!

swissfamilyfun.com/rabechilbi-turnip-lantern-festival/#:~:text=R%C3%A4bechilbi%20is%20a%20fall%20tradition,parade%20them%20around%20the%20neighborhood.

NoCarbsForMe · 30/10/2024 18:54

Mmm swede mash n butter

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.

daffodilandtulip · 30/10/2024 18:49

We had to put a little torch inside ours, as my mum didn't like the smell.

I want to get a turnip now!

Lemonade2011 · 30/10/2024 18:49

We always had a neepy lantern, that and bin bags were the smell of Halloween for me. Loved it, they do smell v strongly. My mum would call it a swede - English my dad a neep - north east (nr Inverness) we guised and went round all the neighbours, only people my parents knew and my grandparents. Was good fun. Don’t like trick or treating, my own kids guised, it’s not quite the same now though.

Ygfrhj · 30/10/2024 18:48

I remember hacking away at turnips in the 90s, maybe my mum just hadn't got with the programme because I think all the other kids had pumpkins

CitrusPocket · 30/10/2024 18:46

They discussed this on Times Radio today or yesterday. Hugo Rifkind used to do this growing up in Scotland.

BadBarry · 30/10/2024 18:45

I'd never heard of swede carving until reading an old Topsy and Tim book where they carve Swedes, interesting to know this was actually a thing

QuestionableMouse · 30/10/2024 18:45

Thevelvelletes · 30/10/2024 18:44

There's something creepier about yours .. because of lack of nose and eyes have been hacked out..well done 👍.

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You're very kind! 😁🤣

I've seen bigger potatoes so I didn't have much room to work! 😑🤣🤣🤣