Homestead mailing list

["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT dtnspeed.net>]

Toni asked about getting immunity to poison ivy:

 

>I wonder : would an inoculation/transfusion of

>kinfolks blood carry antibodies/immunity in it ??

 

I don’t know this from personal experience because my goats cleared off all the poison ivy on the place in days (and that was many years ago), but other goat owners have told me (and I’ve read in various places) that if you drink milk from goats who’ve been eating poison ivy your sensitivity will be reduced.

 

Hmmmmm, if I was sure it worked I’d cultivate the ivy and sell the milk at a premium.

 

I’m sensitive, but not terribly so. My father was immune. Early in their marriage, my mother took lunch out to him in the field and sat down next to his water jug, which – it later was discovered – was in a large patch of poison ivy. Though she’d grown up on a farm, she’d never seen the stuff before. She had a horrible case back before prednisone was a possibility. I learned early on what it looked like and avoided it, so whether immune or not I never had a problem (though I did get mild rashes from time to time).

 

Marie