BS: where's the mistletoe?

Subject: where's the mistletoe?
From: Kim C
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 07:29 PM

Every year it's the same old thing. I want some mistletoe and can never seem to find any. I want some for me, and some for a Christmas package I am putting together for a friend. Does anyone know where I can get some, or does anyone have a few sprigs they'll send me? I'll pay the postage and all. :-) Many thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 07:32 PM

Kim, I have a sprig hanging from the top button on my fly if you want some to try out.

You oughta' be able to go out in the woods down there and find some pretty easy Kim. Or try one of those Christmas Specialty shops.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: MMario
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 07:34 PM

or check with your local florist

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Kim C
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 07:35 PM

You are TOO Much.

I understand it grows up in the tops of trees? Heeeeeeyyyyy...... we're going to the wilds of Indiana this weekend, maybe I can find some up there.... see I just didn't wanta hafta WORK for it, is what that's about. I thought the craft store would have some in the holiday section but I didn't see any...........

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Homeless
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 11:00 PM

Yes, mistletoe does grow in the trees, but not necessarily way up at the top. It's a parasite plant, and will grow where it catches a good hold on a tree - usually in the crotch of two limbs (be good, Spaw), and usually high, but not at the top. Just look for a dark green bush (I said be good, Spaw) in an otherwise emtpy tree.

I lived in Indiana for a number of years, and never saw any mistletoe there growing (that's not to say that it doesn't tho). But when I lived in South Carolina I saw quite a bit of it in the old oak trees. In SC, the traditional way to harvest it is with a shotgun - blast away at the bush, and pick up the sprigs off the ground. If I still lived in SC I'd send you some, but I moved from there a few years back.

If you do manage to find some growing, keep in mind that the berries are poisonous. Which is why they put plastic berries on the live plants they sell.

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: mmm1a
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 11:06 PM

Try looking at wal-mart or K-mart.I've seen it at one of the 2. mmm

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 11:12 PM

My grocery story carries it in the produce section this time of year. Surely the florists can get it........

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: GUEST,BigDaddy
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 12:59 AM

Just saw some at a nearby K-Mart or WalMart or something. If you don't (or do) find some, keep us posted. I'll grab the next bunch I see. If you don't need it by then, I'm sure I will. :)

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Banjer
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 05:49 AM

Several years ago I was not happy with some things at work around the Christmas season. As a form of protest I attached a sprig of the 'kissing weed' to my back belt loop. It let the folks know what I thought about the issue! (The issue was to remain open all day on Christmas Eve, 8 to 6. The boss did relent and let us close at 2)

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Guessed
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 06:11 AM

Stubbed my foot yesterday
its a misled toe **BG**

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Kim C
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 10:29 AM

Thanks y'all... I will check at K-Mart, for you all know I believe Wal-Mart to be the evil empire, except when they have pantyhose on sale for $1.50. I guess we can all be bought, can't we? ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: SharonA
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 10:36 AM

And K-Mart's not an evil (somewhat smaller) empire?

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Fortunato
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 10:36 AM

Kim C.

Here's an alternative. When you see someone you want to kiss, go up close, point upward and say:

"Look, mistletoe!"

When they look up, grab them and kiss them. Improvise depending on their response. If they like it slip them a little tongue. If they protest, just say:

"Sorry, wrong again."



Happy Holidays, Fortunato, inventor of 'Virtual Mistletoe'.

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Fortunato
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 10:37 AM

'SPAW, I've got some in my back pocket for you. Hee, hee.



Chance

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Sorcha
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 10:56 AM

I guess if you live in South Texas, you can just go gather bags of it from the roadsides.

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Gypsy
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 11:22 AM

Kim, lemme know where to mail. When i go get mine, would be happy to stick some in an envelope for you. It's gotta have berries, so you can pick one for each kiss. Then you have good luck!

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Kim C
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 12:26 PM

Well, K-Mart's actually closer to my house. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Whistle Stop
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 01:27 PM

Bummer -- when I saw the title to this thread, I thought it was the winning caption for the picture of Bush and the turkey.

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: mmm1a
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 02:49 PM

Banjer Thank you Thank you. What a wonderful idea, I just had a really rotten day at work and reading your post on where to hang the mistletoe just cracked me up. Hmmm wonder if the people I work with would get the message. mmm

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Micca
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 04:37 PM

This might help with identification, Viscum Album, Mistletoe. in UK is usually found on oak and app;e trees. Click here

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Gareth
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 06:18 PM

Careful It's a sacred plant to the Druids !

Ahhh ! Give me that old time religion !!

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 06:26 PM

Hanging this stuff from the top button of your fly is only going to get your zipper wet Spaw.

Taping it to your navel might produce, is that a pun?????, better results!

I spent part of a year in Phoenix, Arizona once - it grew everywhere! I couldn't believe how much it cost in Idaho.

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Gypsy
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 10:56 PM

Oaks child was sacred....handle with respect. Conversely, my sainted departed Father in Law, used it to abort cows that were bred too young.

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 Nov 01 - 11:47 PM

We have a problem here at the moment in that it's been too warm for the leaves to drop off the trees, so we can't actually see where it is..... although I do know where there is some, 120 miles from me and about 30ft up in a tree which is neither oak nor apple.....

If you want to see if you can grow some, try nicking a bit out of the bark of a fruit or oak tree, at the junction of two limbs where they form the V (Spaw, you should try to control those urges....). Stick the berries in that nick and with a lot of luck, something might grow. It gets there in nature because birds take a berry, find it tastes horrid, so wipe their beaks off in a suitable crevice (SPAW!! You've been told!), the beak scrapes a bit of the bark off and exposes the living cells just underneath. The mistletoe berries are very sticky and attach themselves to this layer, where they proceed to suck up the juices like the good little parasites they are!

Alternatively, the mistletoe is on the end of the mistlefoot.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Kaleea
Date: 22 Nov 01 - 12:36 AM

Why, in Oklahoma, of course, where it is the state flower! At this time of year, mistletoe is really bursting forth in the tops of trees. One might ask "how does one get it from the tops of the trees?" One would, of course, get one's rifle and shoot it off the branch, after which gravity would lower it to the ground (if it doesn't get tangled in a nearby branch) and one may then pick it up off the ground. And no, I am not kidding!

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 22 Nov 01 - 12:53 AM

It grows as a parsititic organism on oak trees, elevation range 300 to 3000 foot elevation.

Go into the woods.

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: catspaw49
Date: 22 Nov 01 - 12:58 AM

.......and be careful not to step in a pile of gargoyle as you cross the pasture to get there.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Nov 01 - 01:09 AM

Garg - much as I hate to state the obvious - woods are few and far between in London City, New York City, Alaska and Peking... and even then, you aren't allowed go in half of them and certainly not take stuff out of them.

Most mistletoe sold in England comes from France (la guise or gui I think it's called - odd that it's feminine...), where they haven't had all their hedges demolished to create bigger fields (see the farming thread) so have good, mature trees in them.

Besides - you ever tried climbing a 50 ft tree with hands full of clippers and bag?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Gareth
Date: 22 Nov 01 - 06:52 PM

LtS I don't think you would be flavour of the month blasting off with a .303 Lee Enfield or 12 gauge (Bore) in Hyde or Victoria Park.

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Micca
Date: 22 Nov 01 - 07:10 PM

If you want to be really Druidic,and accurate, it should be cut with a golden sickle, by the leader of the community, and caught in his/her cloak as it must not touch the ground. It should then be placed over the entrances of the house..
The reason for kissing under the Mistletoe, is another pagan practice secularised and adopted the "serial numbers filed off" and the meaning lost, it was placed at the entry to the coven or " sacred space" and that is where the High Priest and High Priestess stood to welcome the participants with a kiss... It should be taken down and burned either at 6th January or at Beltane..1st May

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 23 Nov 01 - 10:37 AM

There's lots in the old oaks in Windsor Great Park, Berks, UK, but, as Liz says, you need a climbing rope to get at it - and watch out for the Duke of E. blasting away with his shotgun. (Is he still head of the Worldwide fund for Nature?)>
RtS (how did Loki make an arrow out of it to kill Baldur or was it only tiped with mistletoe, or have I garbled my Norse mythology)

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: catspaw49
Date: 23 Nov 01 - 11:12 AM

Geeziz Micca.....If it took all that just to get a kiss, what was required to have a little sex?

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Gypsy
Date: 23 Nov 01 - 11:16 AM

You have your mythology right, Roger. The reason that the mistletoe didn't have to take the oath not to harm Baldur was because is was so weak and brittle. The arrow might have been crooked, and fragile, but the stuff can get long enough to make one.

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: catspaw49
Date: 23 Nov 01 - 11:26 AM

BTW, any of you electing to take your 12 Gauge out to the woods and blow out a little mistletoe might also be advised to be sure it's mistletoe. Squirrel nests also look about the same from ground level..............

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Giac
Date: 23 Nov 01 - 01:49 PM

Shotgun?

I want big bunches of it, not mangled pieces. For 50+ years I've used a .22. Shoot where it grows from the tree, then catch it before it hits the ground. Lovely!

Mary

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 23 Nov 01 - 03:01 PM

I've never seen it in the wild; in stores around here you get a fake little plastic-y bunch with plastic berries and green tape covering the leaves. I would LOVE a big bunch of mistletoe this year, since kisses are scarcer than ever around here!!!

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Nov 01 - 05:07 PM

Just as well I don't have a .303 (although I have stripped and cleaned one, vintage WWI), because I's be tempted to go to Windsor Great Park and shoot the Duke of E with it, and yes, he is still head of WWF for N.....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Gareth
Date: 23 Nov 01 - 06:33 PM

Thread Drift

A squirrel (North Amercan Grey) is just a Rat with a Bushey Tail and a very good PR man.

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Gypsy
Date: 26 Nov 01 - 10:56 PM

Ah, but sauteed squirrel is a delicacy 'round here. Just in time for the holidays, too! It is your bonus with shooting mistletoe.

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Louie Roy
Date: 27 Nov 01 - 12:10 AM

I've got at least ten ton of mistletoe growing on my property and I would be very happy to ship to anyone who sends their name and addresses and pays the postage.Mistletoe grows in a very large bunch so one bunch would take care of probaly 500 people Louie Roy

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Trevor
Date: 27 Nov 01 - 05:47 AM

I've got some in my garden. First PM gets some, with a complimentary kiss.

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Dec 01 - 03:11 PM

Louie asked me if there would be a way for people to see how mistletoe grows. I did an image search at Google and came up with this: (click). This photo gives an idea how it looks in a tree that is badly infected - like a number of trees in my neighborhood. This one (click) is small, but very clear. The kids harvest the stuff and sell it outside supermarkets for a quarter a sprig. They don't get many customers, but the overhead is lower than Kool-Aid.
I guess it's romantic and all for most people - but for us in Northern California, it's a problem. If you want an education about mistletoe, click here.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 03 Dec 01 - 04:30 PM

Thread drifting - Brown squirrel, Grey suirrel, Pack Rats, regular rats, Chipmunks, are all tasty - PR be good or not - Rat is tasty

Yum yum!!

Especially slow cooked over a nice bed of coals on a sweet Fall evening.

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Dec 01 - 08:20 PM

Click here for a picture of mistletoe that Louie Roy sent me.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Sorcha
Date: 03 Dec 01 - 08:40 PM

Wow! Neat pics, Louie and Joe. Thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: harpgirl
Date: 03 Dec 01 - 09:16 PM

...it is a common parasite in old live oaks in the south along with spanish moss. As Giac says, tradition is to shoot it off at the stem and catch it as it falls.

BUT...since I DON'T OWN ANY GUNS...I always look to see if it is growing low enough to get to by climbing. I've yet to see it at climbing distance from the ground.

So, Kim...if you bring your arsenal down to North Florida, I will lead you to bushel baskets of it and you can shoot yersef sum!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Gypsy
Date: 03 Dec 01 - 11:21 PM

Man, in our stunted oak trees (only in California would they be given the name "pygmy") you can generally reach up and grab it. By the way, is that a NOVA in the pic? wow!

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: GUEST,BigDaddy
Date: 03 Dec 01 - 11:27 PM

By the way, did Kim ever get her mistletoe?

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 12 Dec 01 - 09:15 PM

I got mine! Thanks, Louie Roy! I got enough to give a sprig to every member of my chorus AND decorate a kissing ball AND save some for some more friends AND make a mistletoe crown for the caroling party! I'm going to be dangerous to be around this yuletide!

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Louie Roy
Date: 12 Dec 01 - 10:10 PM

There is bound to be some mudcatters in that area that can help animaterra out I live 3000 miles away Louie Roy

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Mark Clark
Date: 12 Dec 01 - 10:22 PM

I remember that Chicago's Mayor Richard J. Daley—father of the present Mayor—once made a public statement to the effect that for anyone who didn't like the way he ran the city, he had mistletoe on his coat tails.

Maybe the misteltoe's still there.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Gypsy
Date: 12 Dec 01 - 10:40 PM

I mailed it to Kim last week....should be there soon!

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Kim C
Date: 13 Dec 01 - 05:24 PM

I got it! I got it! Thanks Gypsy!

Hmmm..... a mistletoe crown.... hmmmm.... I have a big ol' magnolia tree.... I'm wonderin what I can do with mistletoe and magnolia leaves...... hmmmmmm......

Subject: RE: BS: where's the mistletoe?
From: Gypsy
Date: 13 Dec 01 - 09:58 PM

Okay, what is the history behind kissing under the Mistletoe? Does it date back to the Beltaine fires, in Oak groves? There certainly was kissing (and more) on those occasions. Any ideas?