Persicaria odorata, cilantro on steroids

I'm always a big fan of finding exotic veggies and herbs that take better to Memphis weather than their less exotic counterparts, like malabar spinach's hardiness to heat and humidity versus spinach's wimpiness and in this case, Vietnamese Cilantro/Coriander versus cilantro.

Vietnamese cilantro/coriander, or Persicaria odorata is a very interesting plant that, like malabar spinach takes well to summer weather here more than the common cilantro that self seeds in my garden.   Unlike my regular cilantro which bolts immediately when it hits 80+ degrees F it seems, Persicaria is fine with cool weather as well as heat.

 (a closeup of a Persicaria stem, you can see its relationship to knotweed from the, uh, 'knots' aka nodes.)

I prefer to use regular cilantro when possible because it has a more delicate flavor whereas Persicaria to be honest nearly stinks with that cilantro flavor that some genetically prone people have so come to hate. (I wonder if they are the same volatile compounds as regular cilantro... if those regular cilantro haters would hate Persicaria... Pepsi challenge anyone?)

When the going gets tough though, I want me some cilantro flavor without bitter, tough stems and reach for the Persicaria.

(a little more detail and more showing of the stem and where the leaves form)

This is a very easy plant to grow that prefers soaking wet soil (as it's technically a water plant), partial sun (despite what many sites seem to say) and  good air circulation I find.  It was tough growing this plant indoors, over the winter for me because of the immense need for water this plant needs, it promoted aphids and I eventually just had to toss the plant despite attempting to make cuttings from apparently non-affected plants.   Cuttings, which I think didn't make it because of the poor winter light (no grow lights here).

If you have Asian grocery stores around, it should be relatively easy to find this herb sold in bunches for very cheap (89 cents here for a large bunch).  It's very easy to propogate, just strip the bottom couple to few inches of leaves from their nodes and pop in a cup full of water until roots show (in about a few days) then plant in a relatively good wet location, or in a pot where you can move it around to a good location.

(closeup of a leaf.  Note the Rorsarch-like pattern on the leaves.  Pacman if you like, or maybe some angel-wings, whatever floats your boat.  This is on every leaf)

This year I have mine in a part sun/shade wet ditch-like area of my garden to see how it survives and also in a no-drainage container that's taller (this plant likes to trail) so I can keep the leaves relatively clean.  I have no issues placing this plant/cuttings in a no drain container because it it a water hog and if past experience serves me right, it will take over the container quickly and need to be repotted soon anyways.  So quickly it sucks up water  from rampant growth that it will pot/root-bind itself and need water all the time it seems.   So, if it looks like your Persicaria is drying out quickly and suffering, that's why.

You may encounter this herb as rau aum, laksa, smartweed, or Vietnamese mint.  It also seems to go by the other Latin name of Polygonum odoratum.

Hardy to zones 11+, as I've said, you can overwinter it if you so choose to and have easy access to a cilantro-like flavor all w inter if you provide good conditions to avoid aphids.  Like I said though, it's cheap to start again if you have a good Asian supermarket source.  So, don't feel guilty if you lose it.



LINKS OF INTEREST:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persicaria_odorata
 http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/310/
 http://www.richters.com/Web_store/web_store.cgi?product=X1891&show=&prodclass=Herb_and_Vegetable_Plants&cart_id=5506611.16265
  http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Poly_odo.html
 http://www.soupsong.com/rlaksa.html

Walk like an Egyptian (onion)

There are few plants in my garden now that I feel I need to highlight because of how awesome I think they are, one is these is my Egyptian Walking Onion, also known as a Tree Onion:

(this a pic taken of it earlier in the year where it looks more plain jane-y, but later pics show its true glory)

Egyptian Walking onions are interesting plants named for their habit of growing bulblets rather than flowers at the tips of their stalks.  These bulblets sprout while on their "mother" stalk and eventually grow so heavy that the mother stalk begins to bend and lean until the bulblets touch the ground and sprout into the ground to form new plants (or an impatient human takes the bulblets and just plants them elsewhere to his or her liking :)

 (very cool how the bulblet sheath accumulates steam/condensation within.  The curl at the tip makes me think of elf hats... so festive!)

(a bulblet pushing its way out of its bulb sheath)

They are a wonderfully hardy plant from zones 3-9 and begin to form bulblets anytime from late spring to early fall, though I swear mine started in early spring.

In my zone 7b/8a (contested), they are evergreen year around and are grown not only for their delicious, very spicy bulbs/bulblets and thick green onion stems, but for their wonderfully ornamental nature.

(if Medusa could be a plant... here she is)

 I don't eat this plant too often because I love so much how it looks and I want to develop a very large patch before I allow myself to eat them voraciously because though each onion packs a punch, they are small.  For flavor, good.  For volume, yeah, need to wait on that (but they are quite prolific!).  My patch is a couple years old and it has gotten to quite a good size!  Some of the mother stalks are about an inch thick in diameter!

(the papery texture of onions in general is always cool, but Egyptian onions take it to a new level, with an almost sinuous feeling movement their stalks form)

This is one plant I don't think I could live without after encountering it now.  It's useful, virtually pest free, very forgiving of the soil it's grown in and structurally amazing with it's bulges of bulbs and twisty nature, and always makes people (plants lovers or not) say, "What the heck is that?!"

LINKS OF INTEREST:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_onion
 http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/31430/

Cat's eyes: Hellebore's in seed

I was puttering around the garden when I noticed some odd looking things on one of the hellebore's leaves:

At first I thought they could be pest eggs, or little cocoons, but after they rolled right off the leaf into my hand I knew I had my mini-gold mine:  hellebore seeds!

They are surprisingly pretty, like gray cat's eyes, little gems  or black freshwater pearls.  If they didn't eventually turn into hellebores, I'd want to turn them into beads and make lovely drop earrings with them.  If, also hellebores didn't take forever to go to seed (at least to me) wouldn't these make great freshwater pearl substitutes?! (Except the seeds seems to lose water and get a bit shrivel-y like which is less attractive.)

(I like how they are next to my wedding band... though the colors aren't so good here in the pic,  I think they're prettier than diamonds)

(My postman, who was coming by at that time admired them and said they reminded him of "some awesome tempered steel," to which I replied was "very romantic." :)  He grinned and said he was more of a mechanical guy!)

I am sad to say, that while I have heard that hellebores self seed, I think, as the bed they were in is full of other things, I might have been pulling up little seedlings in the past years.

D'OH. (actual dictionary word now!)

Either way, now I have seeds, fresh ones that I can sow in their own happy little pots so I will know what a hellebore seedling looks like in real life (and not just on the internet if I so care to research it).  I know that this will be a red hellebore (more pink/mauve if I say so).  I do somewhat lust after the other colors and would like to cross my hellebores with my neighbor's, who has done nothing with his and didn't even know what they were (his mother planted them).  Mystery colors, that's what I want!

(

(Hellebore flower+bee=seeds! and now sad and dried out looking open pods)

To help me with propagating my gems, I turn to my trusty The American Horticultural Society book, Plant Propagation, edited by the nearly unbelievable gentleman's name, Alan Toogood. (A gift many Christmases ago by my wonderful sister in law).

In summary:
-sow fresh seed immediately as old dry seeds can be spotty in germination
-seed may need a winter to break dormancy
-will germinate in autumn or spring, and flower after 2-3 years.

Unfortunately, not many more details.  Hurray for the internet!  Of course there'd be a a society for hellebores!

Being a bit more specific, they suggest sowing under a quarter inch of soil (pretty much the 3-4 seed depth rule), will need to be stratified (aka, just let it sit outside for some seasons and wait), cite that it might take up to 6-18 months for germination and potentially take 3-4 years for flowering (bummer).

I wonder if I might be able to induce germination by freezing seeds for a day or two (works well with nasturtiums I have found).  I'll probably try that with a few of the seeds just as an experiment.  A couple of pots just sitting in the same area and conditions that the current hellebore is in, one with just fresh sown seed which will just sit around and be naturally stratified, the other pot with some previously frozen seed.  Of course, the problem with forcing the seeds to germinate early like that is that it will be forced to fend through the summer.  Oh, my curiosity can be cruel, sorry seedlings!

I'll update you (in 6-18 months apparently) if anything crops up and I don't forget about the pots :)

mini-update about the mold thing

I had completely forgotten to mention also sour milk (or fresh or powdered milk) is also an anti-fungal.

I remembered this when I opened my fridge today and noticed the leftover milk from making yogurt with (if you want the simple, super awesome recipe just ask! It's so easy and magic) had gone bad.


Did a little research and found a nice little science for backup. (note especially the 30% dilution mention)

Also having slipped my memory (as I don't have to deal with problem often, and once you find one thing that works you sort of stick with it) is that chamomile tea, garlic solutions, and cinnamon solutions (or powder) are also an purported method of mold/mildew prevention/treatment.

So, cuppa chamomile-garlic-cinnamon-milk tea anyone?  (I'm sort of seriously thinking of doing this)

This fact made me whip up a dust of powdered milk, ground cinnamon and garlic powder (NOT SALT) which I sprinkled at the base of my house plants in hope that it will drive away any pests.

This would be interesting to use in a solution as long as you filter it ahead... gunked up sprayers are no fun.

Other helpful links:
http://www.yougrowgirl.com/tips_disease.php
 http://newfarm.rodaleinstitute.org/columns/cut_flowers/2005/0505/disease.shtml
 http://www.ghorganics.com/page15.html

This is not a noble rot.

Recently I spoke about all the rain and things will be rotting due to mold.

Well, when I meant mold, I didn't mean the powdery mildew kind, I mean the BOTRYTIS kind.  The gray, fuzzy, what you typically see in boxes of badly refrigerated or just old strawberries in the store.  I recognized it in my garden because after taking a wine course, we learned about this mold, except it's called noble rot in viticulture due to its presence needed to make certain sweet wines.

Except I don't make wine with my strawberries, and really it's kind of nasty tasting on strawberries if you haven't had the unfortunate circumstance to eat a moldy strawberry (the light brown rotty part you see on strawberries is also part of the Botrytis cycle) .

My sister in law mentioned using baking sodium (aka sodium bicarbonate) and proceeded to give a scientific explanation as to why this works (she's much more detail oriented than me.  Why can't I be more that way?!)

I have used the baking soda spray solution in the past for powdery mildew on my houseplants, a small and easy undertaking, and I was a little worried about spraying the vast swath of my strawberries with a baking soda solution because I really want something with really good efficacy to take care of this problem and I was a little worried that any residual film that might be left behind could harm the foliage of the strawberries and if sodium build up might be a problem in the soil if I have to spray quite a few times.

Wanting to find a middle ground so I don't over do anything, I went a researching (which I should have done ANYWAYS prior to my first post) to see the efficacy of baking soda on botrytis and whatever helps stop/prevent it other than good practices in general.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Service site had some great information here.

Essentially, while baking soda is helpful, they say that it's most helpful with a surfacant such as soap or a light horticultural oil and that it's true that sodium build up can be a problem and that it could potentially damage leaves if suggested levels are exceeded.  It seems that ammonium and potassium bicarbonates can be more effective than sodium bicarbonate (but who has that in their cupboard?) though it does depend on the situation.

My sister in law mentioned that pH had to do with harming the fungicide and this was mentioned too on the website, as was the thought that it affected the fungus's cell walls, which makes sense, because you're probably pickling/mummifying them.

This makes me wonder too if the diatomaceous earth could have any ability at all to help stop some fungus spreading because it dehydrates so much, that perhaps the spores are unable to survive? Though those things are pretty tough because once you add water, presto! viable again is usually the case for spores.


A Cornell link mentions the use of neem oil and though  I know my neem oil does say fungicide on it, I had to look carefully to see if it mentioned botrytis, and it did, so now I feel more confident in having that in my arsenal too.

I had mentioned looking for a copper-sulfur spray, which is usually the recommended (though unreliable, what isn't though?) method to control fungus, but as I am reluctant to spend money I think I will now go back and forth doing an initial neem oil spraying, then baking soda solution, and so on and so forth until I feel safe. All the while keeping a good eye out for gray fuzziness and discarding those properly, NOT in the compost bin where they are prone to survive.  I could potentially place them in a white plastic bag and let them sit in the sun for 2 weeks to kill spore, but I am feel too strawberry insecure now.

In a way it feels bizarre spraying more liquid on already too wet things, even though I know it should help it, because what's one more drop in the bucket it seems?!


HELPFUL LINKS
(about botrytis/fungus control, some organic, some not, some about strawberries, some not):
 http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/bakingsoda.html
 http://www.ehow.com/how_3034_detect-prevent-botrytis.html
 http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3070.html
 http://www.umass.edu/umext/floriculture/fact_sheets/pest_management/botrytis.html
http://strawberry.ifas.ufl.edu/plantpathfiles/botrytisfull.htm
 http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1302/
 http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pp152
 http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/pdf/HYG_3017_08.pdf
 http://www.ghorganics.com/page15.html
 http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactSheets/botrytis/botrytis_blight.htm

Displeasure

I have been relatively displeased with myself and this blog as of late because while I would like it to be entertaining and informative, I feel I have been much less informative as of late than I have in the past and thus feel quite a bit of displeasure at this and at myself.

I also realize, that quite a bit of my screwiness here at the blog is due to me wanting to pump out content/being just so darn excited about things that I write without much thought.  This bothers me, and if bothers you, 1) I don't blame you and 2) feel free to pipe up and tell me,  "Hey, content?"

So, my realization of this has brought me to believe that I need to, as in all aspects of my life, SLOW DOWN.

This means however, I might not get as many posts out.  Which, may or may not make you a sad reader, or indifferent (because if you're like me you probably have about 50+ gardening feeds that you read... many of them probably much more exciting/informative/picture-rific than mine...)

This could be a boon though, because now you won't see my posts come up so often and distance makes the heart grow fonder, right? Right? :)

If any of this inaccurate or you have any suggestions at all for me to improve, please tell me.  I won't say I thrive on criticism, but I do appreciate it as I think criticism is important and needed for a person to learn to take it gracefully and think outside his or her own head.

Maybe I should do what some people do and devote one day a week to a particular topic?  Any advice?

Anyways, just wanted to get that out and thanks as usual.

Plant Catalog Porn: Baker Creek Seeds (and now I am on a complete plant/seed moratorium for the rest of the year)

Alright, kind of late jumping on this bandwagon here, but for a while I also had a slight moratorium on plant catalogs in addition to my not buying seeds from catalog  as I had so many seeds in backlog already and in effort to save money and support local groups/businesses.

But after my sister in law told me about the rareseeds.com catalog (which I didn't realize at the time was Baker's Creek Seeds which I often would drool online over) I decided I would finally order their free catalog.

Here's where I get teenage girl-y:
OMG!  It's so beautiful and awesome that I can't believe that give this catalog away for free.  GIANT, glossy paged (not so sure how environmentally friendly or cost effective that is), but I went through EVERY page lusting after all the heirloom, non-GMO seeds that I can later seed save from (!!!) and thus save money still yet in the long run!

This is literally what their catalog looks now in my hands.  DOG-EARED. Yep. I want every edible (and herb) available just about:

Not only are the featured pics lovely Many of their descriptions are humorous and informative and have background stories which make the seeds even more endearing.

The only annoyance about the size of the catalog is that because of its size, space is precious and basic helpful info such as height, width, growing conditions and etc. are left out (not like places like Gurney's don't do it either), so it's very forgivable and I tend to like to research my seeds prior to purchase ahead anyways.

I did end up purchasing something (guilt) because I have never seen it anywhere else: Hibiscus sabdariffa seeds, aka at Baker Creek 'Red Thai Roselle.'  THESE are the seeds/plants I've  been looking for everywhere.  It is the source of the red hibiscus tea that my husband and I so love and I've been on an edible hibiscus (the Haight-Ashbury being the closest to this roselle and note almost all hibiscus are edible) collecting spree due to this one plant.

The seeds came very quickly (so hurray on that fast shipping thing!) but I was once again somewhat annoyed by lack of information once again on the packet as to expected size/height and etc.  Granted I understand that growing conditions can cause many differences in plant size, it's nice to be able to provide that. 

Either way, splendid experience thus far and I'd like to add that their website has a "wish list" section... one that is filling up very quickly for me!

I would also like to anonunce that am putting myself on a COMPLETE MORATORIUM for the REST OF THE YEAR for plant/seed/pot/garden accessory purchases unless it's a dying vegetable plant that must be replaced emergency (aka tomatoes) or a need to treat plants for a disease/pest scenario. UPDATE: or for supplies (seed/soil) needed for food for next year's crop or a covercrop for the winter/spring.

After all the wonderful plant sales in the area and local stores have seed sales up the wazoo, AND now these Baker Creek Seeds being purchased (because I apparently couldn't help myself in this one case) I feel like I am full up on good plants/seeds and need to work with what I have (so early on in the year too! Kind of sad)

So, no new clearance plants, even if the price is amazing, no seeds, despite sales.  Only trading or propagating (which I always do anyways) here on out!  Wish me luck (I hope I don't go crazy).


LINKS OF INTEREST:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roselle_(plant)
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/roselle.html
http://www.suagcenter.com/documents/HibiscusTea.pdf
http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Hibiscus+sabdariffa
http://rareseeds.com/cart/products/Thai_Red_Roselle-719-0.html
http://www.southernexposure.com/productlist/prods/71301.html

Well, I think we filled up on our rain quota... now everything will rot.

After going through a good spell of dry weather, we had some rain, then we had LOTS of it.

I don't have television and thus watch news/local stations, but if the internet is sufficient news enough, I assume that many of you heard about the crazy storms/tornadoes in Mississippi and Tennessee.  I'm just glad that I don't live in Nashville, I had no idea that so many houses there were in such close proximity to creeks and rivers that could just overtake them like that.

Best to you who live there and have had to endure those storms and I hope that no one else gets hurt.

Now that I feel like I won't have to water for a few weeks (though the forecast seems to predict a couple of showers over the next 10 days) the amount of rain has me worried about fungus, as it will take forever for all this to dry out.

All my vegetables/fruit plants are in raised beds, and though they drain relatively well, I think, my strawberry plants have been quite happy in them... and now I am kicking myself for not having thinned the plants out more (avaricious for strawberries, I have been).  The leaves, though off the soil/ground are lush and there's probably less air flow going through than I like and because the leaves are such a great canopy over the soil they're in, they are preventing light to reach beneath and dry things out faster.

Good for when it's drier out, when moisture needs to be conserved, not so good when things need to seriously not be soaking.  Well, I'm glad diatomaceous earth is like those gel packets and absorb moisture, maybe I'll just dump it all around and it can soak up a few gallons per bed! (I wish).

After strawberry gathering yesterday I did find fuzzy gray moldy fruit and stems and am now keeping a close eye on the strawberries.  Last year it was slugs, this year let it not be mold that takes my strawberries down! Luckily they're everbearing so I get more than one crop, but still... fungus needs to go so I can keep continuous clean crops.

Unfortunately the organic treatment of molds like these is sulfur-copper sprays, which are not reliable compared to their inorganic brethren, and it would be yet another expense to the garden list. *sigh*


Neem is supposedly a fungicide too, don't know if they affect all fungi though and I hate the idea of spraying more liquid on my already damp plants.

Will  just have to watch and wait (unless it all goes down hill quickly, then I'll just be annoyed).

Hope that your gardens are doing relatively well despite the ridiculous rains and that mold/fungus (unless it's the good kind) stays away from your plants!

LINKS OF INTEREST (on strawberry molds n'stuff):
 http://www.hort.uconn.edu/ipm/fruit/htms/btrytris.htm
 http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/fruitpathology/organic/strawberry/fruit.html
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_life#Mycorrhizae

Icing on the Cake: Diatomeceous Earth

Nope, this isn't me powder sugaring my garden as sweet as gardening is.

This is me using diatomaceous earth to cut some bad buggies up.

Diatomaceous earth, while looking delicious and dessert-like (or like a particular drug I suppose...FLOUR, of course!  Those darn addictive carbs...) is actually sharp and lethal at the microscopic level to slugs, snails and all sorts of pests that creep and crawl.

As its name implies, it is made of diatoms, specifically thei very old, very dead and very fossilized remains.  These diatoms were once algae swimming in the sea, except they are special due to their hard shells which are composed of silica.

Eventually these fossilized diatoms get compacted into a type of sedimentary rock where it is crushed up for many human uses such as filterization (the diatom shells are very porous), cat litter, dynamite and as a mechanical insecticide (<-- what wiki says, very interestingly to put it. Wish there were some gears and cogs included like it sounds).

OK, so to get actually scientific rather than bellicose sounding about how diatomaceous earth works (I feel so Alton Brown-ish, which is funny to say because I don't watch tv), apparently while it is abrasive in nature and can potentially cut-up slugs/snails so that they lie bleeding in my beds to be composted, the powder of D.E. is so fine that it absorb the outer shell lipids of your pest, anthropod and cockroaches all lumped together.  By absorbing the lipids, like a person using baby powder (or you know how those silica packets in food say "DO NOT EAT" because they'll suck you dry from the inside out), well the pest will lost a dramatic amount of water and die due to loss of water pressure.

That was more gruesome than I thought.  Ick.  Mm! Mm! Dessicated slugs.  (I feel a little bad now).

Interesting still yet, diatomaceous earth (medical grade) can be used to de-worm animals (even humans) and is often used in grain storage to prevent pests from decimating the supply. 

When applying the D.E. I used a wire colander and would tap under and over and in-between the plants I wanted to protect. (STRAWBERRIES.  Last year, the sluggies got a LOT of them. There will be no victory for them this year!)  It's smart to use a face mask (I don't. Woo, white lung. No, I just don't breathe much when doing this.  I know, smart) and wear gloves as the powder is quite drying (I don't either and just wash and moisturize afterwards).  I just make sure that the powder is liberally laden on the lower parts of the plants stems and ground so crawlies will get into it.

If you don't want to use a colander you can use a vintage flour sifter which are always cheap to devote to powdering your plants.  Many ways to go about this of course.

Like most pesticides, reapplication is necessary after it rains and to be honest, it is suspect as to the efficacy of the powder in humid environments like where the slugs reside.  I don't think I see as much damage as I usually do on my plants, but the strawberries are just beginning to turn red, and once they are fully ripened the slugs see that as "go time!" to nosh down, so currently this is just my pre-emptive strike agains slug-fest 2010. 

(I have used the beer-swamp of death method in the past to stop slugs and still hand pick, but for my amount of slugs and sanity this was easier.  I also often relocate toads from the park/neighborhood to my garden.  Is this illegal? O_O)

If you do want to use D.E. go for the largest bag you can find for cost savings because it's not the cheapest.  A 5 pound bag was $13 at cheapest for me in my area, but I already have used it numerous times and there's a good amount left depending on how liberally you do apply and how often you need to (I only reapply after rain).

Best of luck with your bugs!

Bug Identification: One that I will never forget now

UPDATE ON EARLIER BUG IDENTIFICATION POST:

So, I was able to contact a Purdue University entomologist, Tom Turpin, about my bug situation and sent him a link to my page and pictures (you should check out his page too).

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH, about that excitement about the bug maybe being a beneficial.  Not the case.  Here's the email I got back from him:

"What you have is a sawfly, probably of the Argidae family.  The immature argid sawflies are caterpillar like and feed on the foliage of  their host plants.  Many times the immatures feed in groups and can defoliate the plant.  So you might want to be on the lookout for little caterpillars chowing down on some of the garden plants.  It that happens there is not much choice but to get out the old spray can and have a go at them.  I hope this helps.  Good hearing from you, and best wishes."

I asked in a later email if neem oil would work and he wasn't sure, but worth a try.  I also asked if  diatomaceous earth was of any use either and he didn't think so.

As usual, many words, that cannot be said are going though my head right now. (Wow, that sounds like the lyrics to a song doesn't it?)

Well, FOR EVERYONE OUT THERE, THIS:

is a SAWFLY. 


IT IS BAD AND I HATES IT.

and will make me do a lot of work now.  Bah.

On a more positive note though, here's a shout out to Purdue and their awesome entomology department that educates dumb folks likes me about the ways and looks of bugs.  If you're ever in the area when they are having their annual Bug Bowl, you too can enjoy chocolate covered crickets (a little chewy), stir fried crickets (actually quite good, nutty) and cricket spitting!  (No, the crickets do not get a running leap off of your tongue when you spit them; they are dead prior to being spat.  My record was like... 6 ft.  I think the record is like 22ft... or farther, if you're lucky the wind's to your back.)

(AND, no one can ever tell me that I wasn't adventurous!)