Cynthia, Congrats on the harvest. To me, the body looks more like the shape of the Imported Cabbage Worm. It's hard to tell though. When you look at it up close, if it looks sort of velvety or hairy, it likely is an ICW. If it isn't velvety or hairy and instead is more smooth, it likely if a cabbage looper. A quick way to know is to watch its movement. If it is a cabbage looper, it will make the characteristic looping movement, sort of like the way an inch worm moves. Loopers move like this because their midsection lacks legs. Imported cabbage worms move like a common caterpillar does. If you are seeing the larvae, you undoubtedly have the moths around. I've been seeing the ugly brown moths of the cabbage looper for about a month, but haven't had much damage on any of the plants yer. I've been seeing the Cabbage White butterflies, whose larvae are the Imported Cabbage Worms, for a couple of weeks now. Also haven't seen any damage to the plants yet. I expect the wild birds we fed all winter are in the garden every morning eating caterpillars, which is okay with me. Also, I keep a yellow cat litter bucket filled with alfalfa tea or molasses tea near the cole crops and a lot of the cabbage looper moths seem to drown in it. What a tragedy that is. Our kale, cabbage, broccoli and chard are doing great, but the heat may get them earlier than we'd like. It was 88 degrees here today and all the leafy crops, including the lettuce, staged a protest, went on strike, and demanded cooler weather....which they will get (especially at night) in a couple of days. The peas didn't seem to mind the heat---they bloomed today after looking stalled for ages. I'm starting to think our cool-season crops had better hurry up. They're running out of cool weather. Dawn

We have a Blendtec blender, with both the FourSide jar and the WildSide+ (5-side) jar. We got it when Costco had an awesome online special price. We love it, and make smoothies all the time. Both the Vitamix and the Blendtec web sites have great (and downloadable) recipes for juices, smoothies, and lots of other stuff. Even if you don't get either brand product, you can still use their recipes. :-) Hubs and I are big milk drinkers, but we haven't had cow's milk in over a year. I read The China Study, and we watched the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, and those both convinced us to change our ways. Hubs now drinks only Almond-Coconut milk, and I only drink Coconut Milk. I also like my coffee sweetened, and for years had been using sugar substitutes (Equal, Splenda, etc.), but for over a year have used only Coconut Palm Sugar. I also eat a lot of yogurt, but (yep, for over a year) now only eat yogurt made from cultured coconut milk. And we use the coconut milk yogurt in smoothies. And when a smoothie recipe calls for ice cream, we use coconut milk ice cream.

"Wouldn't just using a good quality Greek yogurt give you the protein you need to get through the morning?" I like to supplement my protein intake because I am very active and am always trying to build more muscle. I don't eat any meat and only have fish occasionally. Protein shakes are an easy way to make sure I'm getting protein. I keep track of my nutrient intake and without a protein supplement, I would fall short most days. Back on track to the smoothie diet, I bought that book a few weeks ago (10 day Green Smoothie Cleanse). The diet is not just smoothies as other things are allowed, too ... hard boiled eggs, crunch vegetables, apples, a handful of nuts or seeds, peanut butter, etc. I saw it more as a way of cleansing your system to get back on a good nutritional track than as a way to lose weight, though most of the testimonials included weight loss.

Yes. Because in saying "The health benefits can be remarkable", you're suggesting an outcome that hasn't been shown. IE, no evidence. Nutrients beyond what your body needs mostly just pass through. You need a sufficient amount of a long list of things, or close to it. A balanced and varied diet mostly provides them, with a very few exceptions. Some things, very little is needed. More isn't better, you just need "enough". I think you know that. I'm glad you're feeling well, that's what matters. You know that personal health ebbs and flows anyway. Maybe smearing bacon grease on your arms every morning instead of drinking your conconction might have anecdotally coincided with a time when your health improved. There's no way to know. There's also no way to know if doing nothing would have also had the same "effect", because you didn't do "nothing". So no "with" versus "without", no "with this" instead of "with that". No more proof of one than another. It takes the study of thousands of people over many years, with controls, to even suggest any type of observed effect. That's all.....no biggie. I hope your good health continues for a very long time, thoughtful people to toss around ideas with are always in short supply.