Apparently hemlock can masquerade as a carrot! If you’re growing or gathering food, DO NOT BE FOOLED! From the Bellingham Herald:
BELLINGHAM – Last month, David Westerlund pulled from his garden what he thought was a carrot. He chopped it all up—from the leaves to the root—threw it into a jar with cabbage, garlic, ginger, onions, sea salt and whey to ferment, then waited six days to eat a bowl of it.*
Two hours after his meal, the 35-year-old Bellingham man was in the emergency room because he ate what turned out to be poison hemlock. He has recovered since that April 25 trip to the hospital, but his isn’t the only such instance of mistaken identity in Washington state.
Four other known cases of people eating or being exposed to poison hemlock already have been reported for the year as of April, with one of them, a Tacoma woman, dying after eating a salad that contained what medical investigators believe was poison hemlock.
*This kind of renegade kimchi experimentation sounds poison WITHOUT the hemlock. Hippies, beware!
Wasn’t this a storyline on House just a few weeks ago?
It was definitely in the plot of The Dying Gaul… I could never forget a movie featuring a bearded Peter Sarsgaard fucking a guy on a conference room table. mmmm Mmm!
Yeah, while I understand that this might be a concern, I really don’t think that hemlock is the only reason for hospitalization after that nightmare. It sounds like when people get pissed because though go blind drinking moonshine.
Good thing I avoid carrots in general. (Minor-but-irritating allergy.)
I grew up in Hemlock, MI (no joke). I knew I was right to avoid eating my vegetables as a kid…
“Masquerade?” Hell! Look at pictures of hemlock root on Google images—-looks to be a carrot cousin, right down to the lacy foliage on top and the conical root below the ground.
This came up in a recent episode of House also.
Yup, just found a website that says they are in the same family.
plant-species.suite101.com/article.cfm/t…
They remind me of parsnips. Fortunately I hate parsnips.
So, how are we supposed to tell them apart? That would be relevant information here. I hear they look similar, but smell quite different.
Poison Hemlock Factsheet
I thought this was common knowledge since the days of the Oregon Trail.
Not that any of us kiddies remember much besides tipping over wagons and shooting every buffalo on sight.
Don’t eat carrot greens, for starters.