Skin reaction to squash?

[Carmen]

We have an overabundance of zucchini. Crazy ridiculous zucchini. So, today I have been grating, cubing, grating, blanching, freezing lots of zucchini. The fingertips on my fingers that handles the meat inside of it is reacting weirdly. It gets kind of swelled up, tingles, and just feels weird. It persists for about 20 minutes after I wash my hands. Something like this has happened to me with butternut squash, but I've never had it happen with zucchini.

Has this happened to anyone else? Am I developing some kind of allergy to squash?

[sweetpeasmommy]

I've hear of it happening to others and I think it was another veg. Not sure if it is an actual allergy or just one of those things. How are you doing eating it?

[Macky]

When they're cut, squashes secret a substance that can cause skin reactions on contact. I get a reaction to some pumpkins, but not all and not to any other squash. Apparently the reaction is worse when the squash hasn't fully cured. Lots of people also react when handling the leaves of squash plants. I react big time to the leaves when I pick green beans.

[EskimoBoston]

I've never heard of that! Not a veggie but my hands react weird to the fuzzy kiwi outside yet eating them is no problem. :scratch

[cobluegirl]

I react to pumpkins..

[Carmen]

Interesting. I had some to eat the night before, and it was fine. We've been eating a fair amount of it and I haven't had any trouble. What puzzles me is that I had been working with this stuff all day, and it wasn't all of them that would do it. The last ones that I worked on were the ginormous ball bat zucchini that I didn't get while it was at a good stage.

Thanks, ladies!