[BITList] Haggis at Sainsburys

[HUGH]

Colin,

Life is simpler than as set out in the books.  In Scotland, at least in the area I come from and still live in, a turnip - the big one with reddish flesh - is just a turnip.  As lads, we called them tumshies, but we called many things by strange names at that age.  Nobody ever asked for a tumshie in a shop, and my grannie would have had words with me for calling a turnip that. The small one with white flesh is called a swede (no capital) - swedes are not put into soup.  This has been the case during my liftetime. As a nod to Burns, turnips are called neeps for the purposes of Burns Suppers around the 25th of January.  Bear in mind I speak of the situation around the south bank of the Clyde.  In deepest Ayrshire over the hills and moors to the south that separate us, things may well be different, and probably are. The very big turnips we used to hollow out to make Halloween lanterns are not to be found nowadays, much to the benefit of spoons.  Many a mangled spoon resulted from making a lantern.  In Denmark, a turnip is called en turnips, and is unobtainable in the shops. They feed them to the pigs.  Beetroot is similarly almost impossible to find - they make sugar from it.

Hugh.
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