The dying art of swede carving

[MildGreenDairyLiquid]

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.

I'm 66 and used to carve out my own swede from around 10 years old.

The trick was to hatch into the surface with a knife then use a spoon to scrape it out, then more knife hatching deeper in.

Took hours and hours and very sore hands!

We was 'ard.

I remember doing this too as pumpkins weren't readily available then. We were given an old spoon with a sharpened edge and also one of those funny shaped wallpaper scrapers.We would draw the faces we wanted on the front and dad cut them out for us with a big knife. It took forever and we had to carve them outside using the top of the coal bunker as our table.I'm sure my mother picked out the hardest swedes she could find so she'd be well rid of us for a few hours, but she did make us hot chocolate when we were finished 😆

Oh my word!

Bit like the village in 'Hot Fuzz' is it?😂

My questionable attempt! 🤣🤣🤣

Still going strong here in Perthshire!

Some of us still carve swedes!

Can't be doing with those new fangled pumpkins!

My hand aches at the mere thought of it.

Oh the (bad) memories

I tried to do it once out of respect for tradition. Broke the best kitchen knife mere moments into the process of hollowing it out - the handle just collapsed under the strain. I was not popular.

Midlands, 1960s kid. I well remember my 6 foot 2, strong, large handed and practical Dad labouriously turning a swede into a lantern, it took ages.

You'd have loved pumpkins Dad (RIP)

It's turnip lanterns not swede

I loved the smell

Both of you that put up pics o your neepy lunterns are to be commended on your efforts.

I'm 42 and haven't ever known anyone carve a Swede although I did know it was tradition

This sums it up for me:

https://youtube.com/shorts/a8qQq0WtZjs?si=DkmGr02xHIca8O5p

Much better than mine! Though I'm struggling with the turnip to candle ratio unfortunately 🤣

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

I don’t know what was nicer, the smell of a candle in the turnip or mum cooking sausage and mash for tea and adding the hollowed out turnip to the mash so as not to waste it. Delicious.

You're very kind! 😁🤣

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

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

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

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

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.

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

I want to get a turnip now!

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.

Mmm swede mash n butter