What the F is Wild Parsnip? And why you should care.

My friends have a farm, La Ferme Tourne-Sol, off the island of Montreal in the small town of Les Cedres, Quebec.

It was one of those blustery, partly sunny afternoons where you get awfully hot and sunbaked without noticing until you drink one beer at five pm, sitting at the washing station over endless bins of zucchini and immediately feel wasted.

But it started with garlic. "I know you've harvested garlic before," said Dan. "But you haven't harvest it here." He holds up an elegant, well formed stalk and says "Rule one, don't smack the garlic on your shoe. I hate it when people do that. Just scrape the dirt off the roots gently with your hands, like this."


Dan

There are five people who run this farm cooperatively. Dan is in charge of garlic. Emily is in charge of herbs. Fred is in charge of tomatoes. Reid and Renee do roofing (well, just on this specific day). They are so specialized and run the farm so efficiently, that Emily say, hardly ever visits the zucchini patch, doesn't know what size they are, when they should be harvested. Likewise for the others and herbs. it works like that.


Emily

Anyway, back to the garlic. Dan loosens the earth around the garlic with a large pitchfork, and Emily and I come behind him, pulling it out and --gently-- pulling the dirt off the roots. Then we lay it either pointing to the left, or pointing to the right, depending on variety.

"Uh, oh, look out for that," says Emily, pointing to an innocuous looking weed next to a garlic frond. "Dan, keep away from that."
"What is it?" I ask.
"Wild parsnip, it can burn your skin. Especially if your skin is hot and sweaty. Dan's really allergic."

Let me tell you one thing about Dan. He's allergic to everything. All nuts. Peas. The house can't even house peanuts in its cupboards, or he'll die. So, I thought. Wild Parsnip. Who cares?

We kept on harvesting.

Two days later, lying in bed, my knee felt like I fell off a bicycle onto it, only I didn't remember doing that. I got up and looked in horror at an ugly, red blistering patch of something growing on my skin.

Imagine getting a bad case of poison ivy. It's like that. I did some research and found out that Wild Parsnip causes Photodermatitis, or an allergic reaction to the sun. They advise you to go indoors for 6-8 hours after coming into contact with the plant. I guess next time I'm on the farm I'll just sit inside and watch TV.



Wild Parsnip, what you should know--and more

La Ferme Tourne-Sol website