Tuesday, December 02, 2008

I guess I really must be more rural than urban in my mindset, because my immediate answer to this question* is, "You get a rifle (and someone with good aim if you don't have it yourself) and go off into a forest and find some growing on a tree."

Seriously: Organic mistletoe? That's a big concern? I didn't even realize people grew mistletoe in greenhouses; I thought they just depended on people to go out and harvest it.

(Seriously, if anyone WANTS wild fresh "organic" mistletoe, they're welcome to climb my elm tree and cut down the bunch or two that's up there now. I'd even supply the knife**)

(*NYTimes link, may require registration: the relevant thing is, the story is titled, "Where do we get organic mistletoe?" And incidentally, the story is about POINSETTIAS that are organically grown, no mention of mistletoe. Way to go, NYTimes.)

(** Alas, it will not be a golden sickle like the Druids used; I'm pretty cheap when it comes to cutlery).

5 comments:

Lydia said...

People shoot it off the trees? Wow.

AvenSarah said...

I had no idea that mistletoe grew in North America, even -- though I admit I hadn't thought about it very much. I'm not sure any grows in Canada, or at least in the northeastern forests that I'm familiar with. So it wouldn't have occurred to me that one could harvest one's own mistletoe...

Chris Laning said...

Also, the golden sickle thing is way overrated. A sickle that was actually made of gold would be rather heavy and probably wouldn't cut very well. Gold is somewhat on the soft side ;)

dragon knitter said...

i've never seen fresh mistletoe, lol. it's always been plastic around here.

Ellen said...

As a child, I read all "The Little Colonel" books. This elderly children's series first introduced me to the idea of shooting down mistletoe. When I first graduated from college and lived in Kentucky, I re-read the whole series at my public library. And - my husband was able to get locally-shot-down mistletoe for our first Christmas together after we were married! Kentucky life was very exotic to a person who had never been south of West Virginia.