Thursday, December 6, 2007

Mistletoe Fundraiser Status

It looks like some light rain is heading into town tonight and Friday. This might hamper our ability to package Mistletoe as a team for those that signed up on Friday Evening. With this in mind we need to divide and conquer in order to have everything ready for selling on Saturday Afternoon at the two (2) locations.

I am not sure how parents feel about the Mistletoe in their homes and if you have any problems, please let me know. Personally, I would not recommend it around infants (crawling stage, etc) or house pets. If by chance the leaves or berries are ingested they are associated primarily with stomach upset which could be also related to the overall stress of the response of those around the individual and the fear of the unknown.

In 1997, the American Journal of Emergency Medicine published research on “American Mistletoe Exposures” and concluded accidental ingestion of American mistletoe is not associated with any profound toxicity (http://grande.nal.usda.gov/ibids/index.php?mode2=detail&origin=ibids_references&therow=84671) and that was based on a review of over 1700 exposures between 1985 and 1992.

However, I did find an article the other day about a case where someone in the States was attempting to make Mistletoe Tea (http://www.zooscape.com/cgi-bin/maitred/GreenCanyon/questc100635), which is seems very popular in the United Kingdom; however, used the berries instead of the leaves and had a fatal reaction. I asked Janice at EGBAR Coffee House on El Toro and she has drank the tea (made from leaves, of course) before and said she would likely not drink it in the future based solely on the flavor.

With all this said it is still a personal preference if you feel comfortable with it in your home. We can still plan to meet in Foothill Ranch tomorrow. We are still on for Saturday for selling and still have spots open if you are available. I will be available at 1:00P to help parents set up in Mission Viejo before heading up to Costa Mesa and me and Angie might divide and conquer on this task as well.

Look forward to hearing from everyone on their schedules later today.

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