In recent years Halloween has become very popular in parts of Britain where it had been completely unknown before, and by that I mean England. Unfortunately it is the American version of it featuring pumpkins, which are completely alien growths in Britain. Sadly, because there are now no Scottish owned supermarkets we aren’t even able to buy the big turnips which are a necessity for making the carved turnip lanterns which ward off evil spirits.
And here it is lit.
I had to make do with this small turnip and yes, I do know that in England this is what is called a swede, but as far as we are concerned there is nothing Scandinavian about it at all! Say no to pumpkins, unless you happen to be American. Seriously, I once carved a pumpkin and I couldn’t believe how horrible it smelled, just like sick. How could anyone possibly eat them, maybe that one was over-ripe. Are they supposed to smell of sick.
When I was a wee girl Hallowe’en was a really big thing and there were always school/Brownies/Scout parties where we dooked for apples and ate huge pancakes which had been spread with black treacle and strung up across the room. With hands behind your back and up on tiptoe to reach the pancakes, there was just no way you could eat them without getting your hair and face covered with treacle. We were all dressed up as witches, warlocks, ghosts or pirates too. Such fun!!
When we went out dressed like that it was called ‘guising’, obviously because you were in disguise. We were only allowed to visit the houses of friends or relatives and we had to sing a song or tell jokes, something to entertain the householders anyway. In return we would be given some fruit, nuts or sweets and sometimes a small amount of money.
There was none of this terrible chaos that seems to go on nowadays, especially in England, where they seem to have got the wrong end of the stick altogether.
Hallowe’en is the old pagan festival signifying the end of summertime, which it is literally as we’ve just moved the clocks back an hour and we’re now on Greenwich Mean Time.
That’s a small turnip? Gracious they don’t come that big here. I mena I’ve seen some big turnips but not big enough to carve.
Stefanie,
Possibly you are thinking of what we would call a swede then because they are much smaller. If you’ve ever seen Roman Polanski’s Tess, (a beautifully shot film whatever you think of him) there is a scene where Tess is digging what we call turnips out of a muddy field. It has always stuck in my mind, it’s pure Thomas Hardy misery.
You’re so right, those giant Jack-o-lantern pumpkins are pretty nasty smelling. I’m American and I totally agree, it’s gross. But the carving pumpkins are not really good for eating. The eating ones are much smaller and have much more flesh and less seeds, like a squash. Not that I have ever actually COOKED and eaten a pumpkin. I only ever make muffins or pies, and buy it already cooked and processed in a can, like most Americans.
I live in Texas and it’s still so hot here the carved pumpkins go bad almost immediately, which is even nastier. Nowadays many people buy fake carved ones and reuse them every year, or just paint the outsides. Or leave them uncarved like me.
The turnips look really cool but it must be so difficult to carve them!
Karen,
It is much more difficult to carve turnips and after some scary moments with a knife when I first started doing it myself, I decided that the safest thing to use is an apple corer and it doesn’t take too long. My dad was great at it, his were very artistic.
The only squash that I’ve eaten is the butternut kind, which is really nice roasted. The pumpkin that I carved years ago must have been normal then, it must taste an awful lot better than it smells. Whenever I hear anyone in an American film mention pumpkin pie I feel a wee bit queasy.
Pumpkin pie is really delicious. It’s nothing like the gross carved pumpkin smell. It’s custardy and spicy and yummy — does anyone eat pumpkin muffins in Britain? Excellent with mini chocolate chips added, surprisingly, but then I’ve yet to find anything that wasn’t improved with a little hit of chocolate.
Karen,
Oh good, now I don’t have to feel sick at the mention of pumpkin pie. I’ve never seen anything with pumpkins in it in Britain. Fairly recently blueberry muffins started appearing in shops and I resisted for a while because there’s something a wee bit off-putting about blueish food. Eventually I tried one and it was very nice. Not as good as chocolate muffins though,which I always microwave.
Someone told me that American chocolate wasn’t as good as European choc because they have to add something to stop it from melting in your heat. I hope that isn’t true. Have you ever had choc with chilli added – a South American speciality which is surprisingly good.
I love dark dark chocolate with sea salt and chopped mac nuts. Our Hawaiian chocolate is, I think, on par with any I’ve had in Europe. But it’s the small batch, artisan stuff.
And pumpkin is my favorite flavor of fall — it’s wonderful with cinnamon/nutmeg spices. I adore pumpkin pie — like Karen said, it’s custardy and wonderful. I also make a yummy pumpkin bread, and pumpkin spiced lattes at Starbucks are my favorite.
I bet if I baked you a pumpkin pie and didn’t tell you what it was, you’d adore it.
I used to carve pumpkins, when we lived in a colder part of the country, but I’m in the tropics now and they do go bad quite fast in the heat. But I used to love sorting the seeds away from the pulp and toasting them…a crunchy salty snack. Kind of like toasted sunflower seeds…do you eat sunflower seeds there?
Pearl,
I don’t know if I would like salty chocolate. I imagine you have to keep your choc in the fridge in Hawaii. There was a wonderful Italian cafe near us when I was growing up and it had all sorts of exotic chocs but now you can get very good stuff at supermarkets.
I’m sure I would love pumpkin pie if I tasted it but the smell of raw pumpkins is horrible.
Yes, we get all sorts of seeds nowadays but I’ve never toasted them myself. I’ve wondered about trying to do something with butternut squash seeds, seems a waste to chuck them out if they taste good toasted.