Halloween Meanies!!!!

**KitKat** · 01-Nov-04, 21:25

Ah but Cheordie, there was more challenge in a Strath neep than a Californian pumpkin.... and yer mither Catherine could make bonnie soup wi id!

**scotsboy** · 02-Nov-04, 11:24

Ye can make soup wi pumpkin as well. And as for Scots tradition, well I have never heard a neep called a

swede

except by an Englishman

**George Brims** · 02-Nov-04, 19:23

Well then scotsboy you must be one of them townies that only sees neeps at a grocer's shop. There used to be two kinds of neeps grown on Caithness farms, the regular neeps which were green on top, and the "swedish turnip" or swede as we called it, which was some kind of a crossbreed and had a purple colour on the top. The swedes predominated but I remember both kinds being grown side by side. We would feed both kinds to the cows and sheep, but only the swede (which was sweeter) was eaten by people. I am sure they're the only neeps sold at the greengrocers. Well I suppose there are also those wee white ones like you grow in your garden. Here in the US the swede is known as a rutabaga, and they're always wee and frequently woody like they were left in the ground too long.

We once had a huge pale white neep come up in on of our fields, identified by Donald Angus, an older man who worked for my uncle, as a mangel-wurzel - yes there is such a thing!

As for pumpkin soup, why waste the pumpkin on that when you can make pumpkin pie?

**JAWS** · 02-Nov-04, 19:52

I always thought they were called Mangelworzels.

**George Brims** · 02-Nov-04, 20:29

Nope JAWS I was unsure of the spelling myself so I checked the OED before posting! Mangel-wurzel is correct. Remember Wurzel Gummidge? I was pretty sure of that half!

**golach** · 02-Nov-04, 20:43

Ye are a bunch o Tumshies....A Neep is a Scots word for a TURNIP
Golach

**JAWS** · 02-Nov-04, 22:38

Sorry George Brims, I wasn't meaning to correct you, I just didn't read the last part of your post properly. I should have paid a little more attention to what I was reading.
Now I understand why my old teacher used to write very neatly across the bottom of my work the word "Careless" in red ink!

I shall put my Dunces Hat on and stand in the naughty corner or can't they even do that to you now?

**©Amethyst** · 03-Nov-04, 20:55

Originally Posted by golach

Ye are a bunch o Tumshies....A Neep is a Scots word for a TURNIP

MMMMMM! Neep! Ooh, Haggis! *stomach rumbles... roll on Burns night!

**rangers1873** · 06-Nov-04, 16:24

i those people that dont answer there doors or turn there lights out are the same people that put there kids out to go round doors and cant be bothered taking in a few sweets to give back to the kids that go out guising

**2little2late** · 07-Nov-04, 00:00

The only reason kids go trick or treating nowadays is purely and simply greed.
There is no tradition left in halloween.
It's a cheap way of getting sweets. I don't send my children guysing because my children aren't greedy.
If kids came to my house they wouldn't get a thing because I am tight anyway.

They ask for trick or treat. If I played a trick on the kid's who came guysing they would be too happy, so why , if we didn't want to give them anything should they play a trick on us?

**scotsboy** · 07-Nov-04, 05:05

Well then scotsboy you must be one of them townies that only sees neeps at a grocer's shop

Not quite George, but I have always known the purpley coloured ones Neeps as well, it must only be in Watten that they called them Swedes

**JAWS** · 07-Nov-04, 05:19

You've got me thinking now scotsboy, I always thought it was the soft Southerners who called them swedes but obviously not.
Does anybody know what part of Britain calls them Swedes and not Turnips?