Do people still do turnip lanterns?

[WhatapityWapiti]

I made one tonight for old times’ sake. It only has a battery candle in it for now, I need a real one to get that proper Halloween smell!

I grew up in Central Scotland in the 70s and 80s but have lived in England for decades.

Do people in Scotland still do turnip lanterns or is it all pumpkins up there too now?

And do children still have to do a party piece when they go guising?

That's a great neep lantern. 😁 I still remember that smell I was a 70s kid ne Scotland.

I’m in NI where there’s also a tradition of turnip carving.

Haven’t seen one in years. We’ve all had our heads turned by how comparatively easy it is to carve pumpkins instead. Also pumpkins don’t make your house smell like fart when the candle is lit.

It was a Wales thing too, or at least it was in south Wales when I was a kid.

When I was younger we all did turnip lanterns, but they're too much hard work for my liking though they do look more spooky.

Yes! I think it was a 70s/ 80s thing, as you couldn't get pumpkins. Used to take bloody ages with a knife and spoon - bless my dm for doing them for me. Then we'd put a string handle on it and carry it with us. Dm was fab for Halloween.

My mum was from NI and used to carve me a turnip too! Yep, bloody hard work IIRC 🤣

That is a lovely turnip lantern! Well done!

Where I come from, we make lanterns out of sugar beets.

Been to a “moot” carving today! But the event uses power tools to do the worst of the hollowing out. I think the event coordinator said they had 200 people booked in for the afternoon.

Yes, I put a string on mine but my son will probably refuse to carry it because he needs hands free for the trick or treat booty bucket!

Oh god i remember them . We called them tumshies.

Yep. We made them out of swedes, although I think Scottish turnip = swede.

We made them in Devon in the 80s

Correct, in Scotland we have turnips/neeps which are purple outside and have pale flesh inside that goes orange when cooked, known more widely in the UK as swede. A staple of a Burns supper.

The thing that English people call turnips is also called turnip in Scotland, I think possibly my Mum would distinguish that as a “white turnip”. Never ate them though!

Topsy & Tim do Turnip Lanterns, 1979

Part 2

Born in England of Scots parents and remember vividly trying to carve turnip lanterns! They're hard enough to cut let alone 'scoop'.
I'm impressed @WhatapityWapiti 👏

I was talking about this with a friend at the weekend. The amount of whittling required to get a decent face in a swede! Blistered hand guaranteed.

Can't beat the smell when you get the candle lit in there - core memory would be unlocked if I could be arsed to carve one.

But in answer to your question - not anymore - pumpkins are easier. Shame as I love mashed neeps.

I’m just here for the inevitable turnip v swede bunfight mwhahahahah

I did Turnip lanterns in the 1960s in England. Such hard work, chipping away for hours to make the inside. I couldn't believe how much easier it was to make one with a pumpkin when I did them decades later with my own kids.

I think the pumpkins were a US import. I don't remember the shops being full of pumpkins in the 1960s/70s as they are now. It is true of many squash vegetables (apart from marrows) - you never saw Butternut squash either

You never seem to get big enough ones anymore. The smell was amazing though.

Yes. Cannot bring myself to follow the crowd and carve a Pumpkin. It’s just not Halloween without one…mmm that smell and if you leave them outseide to rot down the faces become really quite hideous..😊

Yes that’s true, that one was the largest one I could find in Sainsbury’s and it still felt much smaller than I remembered…but then I am much bigger now.

To scoop out the inside I started off by scoring it with a very sharp knife (with some trepidation and visions of ending up in A&E) then I remembered I had once randomly bought a fruit carving kit in IKEA for the apple corer, and the melon baller was surprisingly robust and effective.

Come to think of it, I do remember that one year I dressed up as a spooky alien and had a melon lantern instead of a turnip.

Ha ha what’s stopping you buying neeps just to eat?

I made Scotch broth with the inside of my lantern. Ye cannae dae that wi’ a pumpkin!

(The decorative pumpkins are not edible at all, we have one of those too and it was just stringy bits and seeds inside. So turnip lanterns are much better for the environment, no devoting entire fields to inedible crops..)

Jeez I had to do one once thanks to my husband as that's all he could find . Never again . Oh well my kids are adults now so it's all behind me . ( I always did them cos he was shit at designs )