Swede Pulls up Carrot Bearing Long-Lost Ring (Ring Lost 16 Years ago)

The Local ^ | 30 Dec 11

[nickcarraway]

A Swedish woman's recent toiling in her garden turned up a rather unexpected harvest when she pulled a carrot out of the ground 'wearing' the wedding ring she had lost back in 1995.

After 16 years, Lena and Ola Påhlsson, who reside near Mora, Dalarna, in central Sweden, had given up hope of ever finding Lena's lost wedding ring.

The ring, which Lena had designed herself, went missing after she had put it on the kitchen counter in midst of a holiday baking session back in 1995.

The couple engaged in a frantic search for the ring, even checked behind the appliances and beneath the floor boards when renovating the kitchen a few years later, but to no avail.

But as Lena was about to gather the last of the carrots from the family vegetable patch last October, she pulled out a carrot that had something attached to it.

As the carrot was so small, she was about to throw it away when she realized what it was that appeared to be “growing” around the finger-sized vegetable.

“Our daughter Anna was at home at the time and she heard an almighty scream from the garden,” Ola Påhlsson told The Local, recalling the day of the miraculous find.

Anna thought Lena had hurt herself and went running to her mother.

She instead found Lena sitting on a chair looking rather shocked.

“It was Lena’s wedding ring that had been missing since 1995 after Lenas annual Christmas baking. It had surfaced, wrapped around a carrot. Quite amazing,” said Ola.

Ola had several theories as to how Lena's ring could have made its way from the kitchen to the vegetable patch.

“We thought maybe it had fallen in to the compostable food bin. Perhaps it ended up in compost that was spread over the vegetable patch later,” he said.

He also theorized that the family's sheep, which is often fed kitchen scraps, may have had a hand in the mysterious migration of the ring.

“Maybe it had been eaten by the sheep and then ended up in the manure that we then spread over the vegetable patch,” said Ola.

The soil in the vegetable patch has been turned over several times without revealing the ring.

Last year, however, Lena didn’t plant the carrots in a row but spread the seeds randomly.

“That could also be the reason as to how the carrot grew through the ring. A seed could have landed in the middle of it after turning the patch, just by chance,” said Ola.

They were both pleased to find that the ring - made of white gold with seven small diamonds - was as good as new after all those years in the soil.

While overjoyed at the find, Lena hasn't yet started wearing the ring again yet, as it still needs to be re-sized to fit her now somewhat-larger fingers.

"We're keeping it in a safe place," she told the local Dalarnas Tidningar newspaper.

[tanuki]

A real 24 carrot story!

[afraidfortherepublic]

This tale deserves a garden ping! Before I even finished reading it I thought of the kitchen compostables. I guess I watch too many mystery stories on TV! LOL

[afraidfortherepublic]

FTA: While overjoyed at the find, Lena hasn't yet started wearing the ring again yet, as it still needs to be re-sized to fit her now somewhat-larger fingers.

Rather ugly of the newspaper to mention that!

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Gardening miracle ping!

Thanks Red_Devil232 and afraidfortherepublic!

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"Rather ugly of the newspaper to mention that!"

Don't ever give a reporter information unless you want it reported. There must be an old proverb along those lines. :)

[SunkenCiv]

The odd part about this story is, the ring was lost in Canada.

[tubebender]

There's Gold in them thar Hills Carrots...

[Texas Fossil]

From Lord of the Rings

(the ring-inscription is said to be written in the Black Speech, a language devised by Sauron and used in his land of Mordor. It is written in tengwar.)

--

The Tengwar[1] are an artificial script created by J. R. R. Tolkien. In his fictional universe of Middle-earth, the tengwar were invented by the Elf Fëanor, and used first to write the Elven tongues: Quenya, Telerin, and also Valarin. Later a great number of languages of Middle-earth were written using the tengwar, including Sindarin. Tolkien used tengwar to write English: most of Tolkien's tengwar samples are actually in English.

--

Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,

Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.

Translated, the words mean:

One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them,

One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

[MaxMax]

The ring may have fallen off when pushing a seed into the ground,
but who uses their ring finger?

[MaxMax]

Er, never mind.

[greeneyes]

Thanks for the happy story.LOL

[Melian]

Hhrumph. My guess is that she didn’t like the ring, was angry one night, and tossed it in the yard. She couldn’t find it later when she’d cooled down.

Or she put it in a specific place and decided all these years later to “find” the ring again and put it around a carrot.

Before you flame me, note that I base these theories on experiencing over 30 years of marriage... and watching many “I Love Lucy” reruns.

[panaxanax]

“HOAX”

I agree. Very easy to fake this one.

[panaxanax]

Very interesting, if true. The placement of the ring leads me to think this is a fake story. People will do anything these days to make the paper, i.e. “15 minutes of fame”.

We used to be in the medicinal wild root business. Several hundred pounds of wild roots would come into our shop every year. Each had to be inspected, weighed and sorted as to grade.

I have seen roots that grew through old glass cork-type bottle tops, washers, nuts, circled around old square nails and even through small stones.

Here’s a true ‘lost ring’ story. In the 40’s, my grandmother lost her wedding ring while shopping in downtown Omaha, NB. She took an ad out in the ‘Lost & Found’ section of the Herald and it was returned by someone who found it laying on the sidewalk. A few years later she lost it again, took an ad in the paper and believe it or not it was found and returned a second time. The newspaper did a story on the strange event, making note of how honest people were. Things have sure changed. Today this 18K gold with large diamond ring would have been in a Pawn shop before it hit the ground.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

lol

[JustaDumbBlonde]

You’re welcome, ma’am.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Bah. My Swedish grandmother always told me Norwegians are stolt.

Now that I’ve looked it up, it doesn’t sound like much of an insult. I think she meant it as “stuck-up.”

[Sarajevo]

I can’t believe 1995 was 16 years ago!

My thoughts exactly! Geez! Where did the time go?

[Tucker39]

Since I am Swiss/German with an Irish paternal grandmother, I cannot speak authoritatively on Scandinavians. All I know is that my Swedish buddy was quite jovial and sporting about the differences/similarities of Swedes and Norwegians. The cherry on top is that they BOTH apparently consider themselves superior to Fins. ;o)

[Red Badger]

How many karats was it?.........