A SWEDISH WOMAN has recovered her long-lost wedding ring – after finding it wrapped around a carrot in her garden, 16 years after losing it.

The woman had taken off the ring while she was baking a Christmas cake with her daughters in 1995 – but never found it again, assuming the ring had fallen down a drain or into a bin before it was emptied.

An exhaustive search around the house – and under the floorboards – met with no success, causing Lena Påhlsson to give up all hope of ever finding the custom-designed platinum ring again.

That was until she was picking the last of the vegetables from her home garden in October – and found the prized ring wrapped around a carrot, perched neatly at its top. .

Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter newspaper – which also carries a photo of the ring as it was found – reports that the family have come up with a theory to explain the ring’s lengthy absence: they believe the ring fell into the sink where it was mixed with potato peels.

Those peels were then thrown into a compost heap, or feed to sheep who graze on land owned by the family.

The ring – which has been scrubbed up and returned to its former glory – will need to be enlarged to fit Påhlsson, who is currently wearing it on her little finger.

“I had given up hope. But now that the ring is found, I can make it bigger so I can start using it again,” she said.