Reaction to Wild Parsnip

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?NMXFB 23 July 2012 Reaction to Wild Parsnip
http://www.durgan.org/URL/?MVNXL Article.
Closer to home. Message from my neighbour.
Our daughter spent Friday, July 13th weeding the Dunnville butterfly garden as part of her summer job duties. On Saturday (14th) she observed a red rash on her right arm upon waking in the AM, and by Sunday AM blistering had started. These photos were taken last Monday evening. She had the same rash on her left arm, but nowhere near as bad. She described the pain last weekend as a burn (no itching).It turned out the entire crew (5) developed the rash and blisters to some degree, but my daughter was by far the worse. The crew all returned to work at different locations with long sleeves and a tad more educated about plants.While not conclusively diagnosed to be wild parsnip exposure by a doctor, the team members feel this was the culprit and the symptoms thus far seem to fit. My daughter told me the evening of the 13th some of the weeds they were digging, pulling and cutting had yellow flowers and a strong odour.As far as the rash, the blisters all broke mid-week and healing has commenced. It looks like the arm has a very good case of ‘road burn’ now.Please educate yourself on some of these new plant concerns, other then poison ivy, like wild parsnip and giant hogweed. The plants sap is particularly damaging.

[boboff]

Defnately looks the same as the ones I get from strimming Giant Hogs weed, makes it worse if the juice is exposed on the skin in sunlight.

Nasty Buggers.

I followed your lead Durgan and made Blackcurrant fruit leather, took two days in the oven, but it's turned out ok. Nice little experiment, all my pans are old so had to use greeseproof which then stuck, but a little water and a scrape at the end cleaned it up. Bit of a faff mind, but still tasty.

[Durgan]

Defnately looks the same as the ones I get from strimming Giant Hogs weed, makes it worse if the juice is exposed on the skin in sunlight.

Nasty Buggers.

I followed your lead Durgan and made Blackcurrant fruit leather, took two days in the oven, but it's turned out ok. Nice little experiment, all my pans are old so had to use greeseproof which then stuck, but a little water and a scrape at the end cleaned it up. Bit of a faff mind, but still tasty.

I never did try the blackcurrant. Too late now. I will make another batch of blueberry, since they are still in season, in fact at their height right now.

[boboff]

It got the thumbs up from the kids too! Which is great to think they are eating lots of fruit and thinking it's sweets ( the good thing is they like those sour sweets coated with citric acid, so all good!)

Thanks for the motivation, nice variation from Jam & Juice & Wine!

I had only tried Plum Leather previously, and the blackcurrant definately packs more flavor.