January 22, 2006
B100 Community Conversation
more from Lyle at
http://www.biofuels.coop/blog/archives/000370.html


75 people showed up at CCCC last night for a discussion panel on biodiesel in North Carolina. We were on the eve of a Girl Mark reactor design build workshop, which we decided to kickoff with this conversation.

Once again the college was packed with everything from the experienced to the curious.

And it was an intense discussion. I kicked it off with these opening remarks:

" have a diverse crowd here tonight. We've got coops. People from government. Backyard brewers. Activists. We even have some commercial producer wannabes. Joe Jobe likes to refer to the National Biodiesel Board as having a "big tent," and when I look around this room I see the vestiges of North Carolina's Big Tent.

Before Rachel introduces the panelists, and heads off into an evening of "BIG" questions, I want to put in an order to the Cosmic Waiter. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Cosmic Waiter, it is a concept we believe in at Piedmont Biofuels. The fundamental premise is that we are all seated at a table, where the Cosmic Waiter is delighted to bring us anything we want.

Anything we want. All we have to do is order. I know that before I came to believe in the Cosmic Waiter I spent a lot off time staring at the menu. I wanted the lobster, but was afraid it would be too rich for my diet. I wanted to order it but I was worried about depleted fisheries. I really wanted the lobster, but was concerned about its high price. I wasn't sure I could afford it. I just wanted the lobster, but then I started reflecting on whether or not lobsters are sentient beings.

You get the point.

So before we get started here tonight, I'm putting in my order:

I want to see a Trail of B100 dispensers across North Carolina. I want to see the B100 Community thriving across the state. I want to see coops with tours open to the public. I want to see commercial plants with tours open to the public. I want to see a vibrant B100 Community Trail that not only provides high quality fuel, but repeated models of sustainable practices.

I want to see cooperation and dialog across a statewide community that has B100 as a common anchor.

I recently saw an email fly by from Rich at B100 Supply. He sells homebrew supplies all over the country-could be all over the world for all I know. So he sees where the action is. The gist of his email was "for such a little state, North Carolina sure has a lot of B100 activity."

I loved hearing that. While we are building this Community, we might as well be a model for the nation.

Let's get started-what orders do you want to put in?"

Rachel took it from there, and introduced the panelists. Andy was there. He's now running a Biofuels program at Guilford Tech. over in Greensboro. Eric Henry from T.S. Designs was there, representing Burlington Biodiesel. Brian from Blue Ridge Biofuels out of Asheville took a seat at the table. As did Roey Cape Fear Biofuels down in Wilmington. Leif stepped in for Piedmont Biofuels. Marc Dreyfors took a seat on behalf of Carolina Biodiesel, and Jurgen sat in for Bull City. Jeremy, Chris Jude, and another fellow sat in on behalf of Appstate Biodiesel out of Boone. The folks from Pritchard's Mountain and Human Kindness were there.

With Anne Tazewell from the Solar Center and Tobin Freid from Clean Cities in the crowd we had a pretty good smattering of the "Who's who" of the North Carolina B100 scene.

It was an intense conversation. We talked about pending legislation, and state regulations, about our aspirations for B100 in our communities, and about how me might link together for a statewide community trail.

And we had our differences. Some of us are wedded to the "coop" concept. Others insist we need to be open to the public-like the B100 pump in Asheville. I noted with interest Eric Henry's pride in having never run out of homebrew at Burlington Biodiesel. That would be the opposite of us, who are chronically out of fuel. Their model is intentionally self limiting. Ours is accidentally expansive.

There was the "I'm here to save money and I'm just starting out crowd," co-mingled with seasoned fuel makers like Don Mueller and John Bonitz. Dean Brooks was there with his daughter-he's now ramped up his "used cooking oil" collection business. And I was delighted to see Bruce, Evan, and Tes-all on staff at Industrial amidst the crowd. David and Emily were also there, helping with tchotche and coffee and such.

As always, Mark Ambrose offered cutting insights from the floor. He is a regular on the energy lecture circuit, and on the lists, and I had a chance to tell him how much I appreciated his input. He might not haul greasy buckets around, but his ideas are critical to this movement.

The entire evening was reminiscent of the opening night of our Grassroots Conference that was held about a year ago. The main difference was that while it was attended by people from all over the country, this was packed with groups from all over North Carolina. That combined with the immense progress we have all made in a year, was a complete inspiration.

As it wound down many of us retreated to the General Store Café, and from there the party moved to the coop. Instruments came out, and in no time the walls were shaking with string band music.

When I left, Girl Mark, Chris Jude, and Leif were geeking out on sock filter housing designs. I suggested that there was a rocking party going on next door and that gathering around a used sock filter was somewhat aberrant. They looked at me quizzically for a moment, and returned to their captivating conversation about microns and flow rates.

Recounting the myriad conversations leaves me somewhat overwhelmed, and left me with the inescapable realization that it was yet another remarkable evening. The cross pollination at events such as these is invaluable to all involved, and what will come of it will surely be a stronger, louder, B100 community conversation.


Posted by Lyle at January 22, 2006 02:48

http://www.girlmark.com/blog/index.php?p=80
Atlanta Class

Usually I get at least a few guys in each class who've been suckered by JTF and they're all excited about it's claims and we spend some time answering questions spawned by JTF bunk. In fact, the NC class last weekend felt a bit like 'debunking Journeytoforever' as one person had brought a failed two-stage base-base process batch and an even more ugly failed Foolproof Method batch with him. People asked about all the JTF bugaboos.

Today in Atlanta no one cared about saving the world with ethanol, twostage process, or anything other than a 'well if it's too gross for biodiesel can I mix it with diesel and put it in my tank direct?' kinda thing . They all knew about Diesel Secret. They were real sharp. I"ve never had a class NOT be interested when I ask them if they want to make an optional ethanol batch- these folks just weren't interested when they heard it wasn't as practical on waste oil.

Lots of jokes about whether my hair was dyed to match the phenolpthaleine.




Rob from Vegenergy who was the main host for the workshop brought his reactor in the back of his truck and Diesel Tim from Gabiodiesel.com did the same thing later in the afternoon- very educational for all, I think.


Diesel Tim's processor:


Both reactors/trucks were equally greasy- I like being able to show people a realistic view of what oil collection/processing is like. Not that it can't be done neatly, but still. Most of us end up with spills on the truckbed sooner or later. Rob was telling people to collect oil with a trash pump if they were planning on handling large amounts, and Tim had one of those AWESOME NOrthern Tool 120V diesel pumps and a foot valve and was recommending those. I"d bought a teeny Northern pony pump to demo ($50 and selfpriming) and it paled by comparison.


None of my 'engineered failures' minibatches failed on cue. Dang. KOH is really tolerant of oil quality and you can really get away with some massive mistakes. I might go dumpsterdive some Church's Fried Chicken grease tonight to save face- I don't want the students to get the idea
that none of the quality parameters stuff matters..

I was incredibly sick with a cold all last week and this morning in the class I had a moment called Dial Tone of the Brain- the class started and the mind went blank. Sentences didn't really form. Eventually I started talking The Biodiesel Speech and it came back. Last weekend one of the students said that watching me answer questions at one point was like watching me flip through a mental Rolodex and pull out the answer card- I've heard most of the questions before. This morning was kinda the opposite for a few minutes there.

This morning I was at the building before anyone had gotten there. I walked out to the parking lot at one point and could tell that my own students had arrived because there in the parking lot was a gaggle of men standing around a pickup truck excitedly pointing and smiling at a stainless steel tank that was strapped to the truckbed.

Rob's processor, strapped precariously onto his truck:



Rick from B100supply.com brought a rented van loaded with equipment for the class, which was a lot easier than me buying it at hardware stores. The Santa Claus of biodiesel homebrewing had arrived- it was Christmas under the biodiesel tree. The classroom has a packed corner full of kits, and even some water heaters. There's a really good set of directions with this one.

B100Supply kits ready for Day 2:



They put us into a really nice conference room for the class:


I got out of the class and buried myself in email and class registrations and other entanglements- I'd been too sick for several days to focus on email and it's grown to avalanche proportions. Two major emails from various quarters came through about the farm plant- I've picked up a ton of consulting work , paid and unpaid, for the next few months. My 'inner Republican' is getting quite excited about the business creativity involved with this project (I don't think I"ve written about the Inner Republican, but he's in there somewhere...). I"ve gotten to talk to a lot of people about the small producer plant design(s) while on this trip, looks like lots of collaborating is about to take place. I was completely dazed after the 6 hours of nonstop talking during the class, still slightly sick, and got on the phone for an hour conversation about the farm plant. I think I somehow managed to make sense. Not sure if I still am making sense in writing though...


Atlanta has springtime weather. I'm getting the memory-feeling of the South in the spring- humidity, the promise of swelter. The short days sure seem weird contrasted with the spring feeling. There's a gorgeous view of downtown at night from Rob's building. I grew up in New York- I"m a sucker for colored lights in the sky. There's an equally appealing freightyard in the backyard, but that's another story.

I got to eat real East Coast pizza yesterday. And it didn't cost $35 a pie. California just can't make the stuff. Atlanta is filled with interesting-looking hipsters, snazzily dressed hip-hop guys, I realized on this trip I"m seeing another thing I don't get much of in my SF -area circles : everywhere I go my friends here are playing SONGS on the stereo. Not whiny electronic New Age lameness. I realized a while back that I never hear any real songs in my circles in SF. Recently I felt almost bad for inflicting rock on the shop stereo, where they usually play electronic music of some type. Here, I"m hearing the stereo playing actual words, voices, rhythm.

Mark

Hey! look! Graydon's doing a blog too!
http://www.utahbiodieselsupply.com/blog/2006/01/another...other-blog-post.html

Saturday, January 21, 2006
Another Day Another Blog Post


Well, Saturday is just about over.....so much fun!

Saturday's are nice...about the only day I really get to work on my website somewhat awake.

Another nice surprise happened though today.
A completely built processor, two wash tanks, and a bunch of other goodies got delivered to me in my driveway, right next to the Vanagon.

The guy that got me into biodiesel in the first place, Mr. Jack Jones, the person behind Riverstones Biodiesel and one heck of a biodiesel maker, had it delivered to me via his diesel truck which is headed up to his dad's for a while.

The processor setup is really nice and is the one I based all of my processor's on.
Click here to see what it looks like:

It was kind of bitter-sweet really.

Bitter, because Jack is getting out of biodiesel, sweet, because I feel like I now posess some awesome peice of biodiesel homebrewing history, plus, the very first wash tank I ever made is back. You see the first wash tank on wheels I built Jack bought from me and has used for well over a year now. The thing is still in great shape & works great. It's always cool to see something that you built after it's been in use for a while stand up well.

Anyway, so now I'm in posession of this really kick butt processor that made most of the biodiesel that ran in my truck last summer. It'll live in my storage shed for a while unless someone offer's me some dough for it (it's technically for sale. The whole setup, processor, 2 wash tanks, a bunch of hand pumps, hoses and everything will go for $2500 to the first one that beats a path to my door w/ cash in hand).

So, that was part of my biodiesel related day.

The other part of my day involved going to see a bunch of model trains with my family. My daughter, although only 2, is a die-hard railroad fan. Ok, not just a train fan, but a die-hard train nut! She know's all of the Thomas The Tank characters and loves to see a train go by.

When she was about 1 1/2 years old we were standing outside our house & she started saying, "Train, train, train!" My wife & I both looked at each other & told her, "No, there's no train (we live a good 5-7 miles away from the nearest train track)"...but she insisted that there was a train.

Well, the little kid was right. When we listened REALLY close, we could hear the faint sound of a train whistle. She'd heard it & knew it was a train (smart kid!--that's my girl!)

Anyway, I got to walk around a huge exposition center looking a model train's w/ my daughter in sheer joy. It was fun!

The rest of the day was spent wrestling w/ our 6 month old son to get him to take a nap. Seems he must've had heartburn or something, cause the kid DID NOT want to sleep much today (or last night, or the night before, and on and on....)

Anyway, so this post is probably kind of dull, I know, but, well, if you've had kids you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. Kids=Lack of sleep, lot's of trips to the Dr. & pharmacy, & a mess of the house in 3 minutes flat!

But, they're worth it & they're a lot of fun.

Back to biodiesel.....I got a shipment of stuff in from my shirt/hat/decal vendor today (wahoo!!!)

He's clearing out the rest of his stock on biodiesel shirts so I'm throwin' a sale to clear out mine too. He sent me pretty much most of what he had left & I'll be selling it off for a good price to anyone that's interested in braggin' via a T-Shirt to the rest of the world about biodiesel.

You can see the shirts here:
http://www.utahbiodieselsupply.com/biodieselapparel.php

Anyway, lot's of fun things....

Other than the stuff above, that's about how the day goes....

-Graydon

posted by graydonblair @ 10:59 PM

50 miles per gallon
http://www.girlmark.com/blog/index.php?p=81


The boyfriend and I went out to SF tonight to drink coffee and work on our laptops. I spent something like 8 hours today answering old email that I let slide during the last two weeks. That stuff piles up fast, and a big part of the work of the tour is just the email in between the classes.

Anyway, we’d parked in a somewhat out-of-the-way spot on Mission, and on the way back to the car, there was a crowd of street people hanging out near the car. A couple of them tried one of those tricks of ‘HEY- HEY! Some guy just tried to break into your car, and I stopped them, andI been watching it for you, and now give me money for saving your car!’ We had walked up to the car and were loading things into it and one guy kind of jumped the gun on telling us the pre-arranged story before all his buddies were assembled there with him. I was looking around as I was getting in, and there were several drunken bums hobbling rapidly across the street as fast as they could, trying to catch us before we drove off, so as to sing us their line about the car. Of course, being a diesel, Tom couldn’t just drive off in a rush- I’d always joked about how you couldn’t use a diesel as a getaway car because you’d have the glow plug cycle to distract you. At one point the lead bum kind of grabbed the open door of the vehicle to steady himself, and was slurring the line about the alleged break-in.

I threw down my stuff and jumped out and found myself just about to jump over the hood to go hit him, which pretty much made him back off long enough for us to shut the door. It was one of those out-of-body moments for me- kind of like a piece of the brain was watching from a distance and saying ‘look, she’s about to hit him… look, she’s jumping out of the car and getting belligerent… Jeez, I wonder what she’s going to do next?’

It’s a great feeling that there’s not a whole lot to worry about with an old beater getting uglier- the guy’s more upright/less staggery friend managed to ‘key’ a corner of the vehicle as we were driving off. I was laughing.

Did I mention it gets 50 miles per gallon?

GC update
http://www.girlmark.com/blog/index.php?p=82

I just had great news about my remaining gas chromatograph setup. The unit itself was $1,000, donations paid for a quarter of that, thank you. I was facing a remaining $2700ish in costs - a $1500 cool-on-column injector, a $580ish column/guard column, and the gas bottle/gas regulator costs (probably about $250 all together). I’d gotten the money together for that and was ready to drop it all this week on the parts.

It turned out that the school where I’m placing the GC finagled a trade for some other equipment, so we ‘re getting the expensive cool-on-column injector essentially “for free” now. Amazing. They’re also buying the gas regulators for their own unit, and I can use theirs until I move my machine out of there, so I’m now only having to purchase the column alone. Fantastic.

The downside is this is still a few weeks from operational, but we’re on track for coming online with it.

Mark

Farm Plant Part 2
http://www.girlmark.com/blog/index.php?p=83

I spent a bunch of time on the East Coast trip in meetings with various potential collaborators about the small producer plant I’ve designed. While I was there, I got a consulting job offer from a small fleet owner who wants to produce fuel in-house with basically the same size system as I am working on- so, allegedly, I now have a pilot project to test out some of these designs, and they’ve got an in-house chemist already and know what they’re getting into.

While I was on the East Coast I had a couple of very productive meetings with other small producers. With one of them, I’m working closely with on our similar designs, and with the other, I may be doing some minor consulting/testing later in the spring. Having the gas chromatograph really opens some doors to thorough testing of various aspects of this production technology- I sat down with one of the guys and worked through some lists of potential problems we expect to be sticking points for our two technologies, and we drew up somewhat of a test protocol for experiments around those problems. I also managed quite by accident to ‘fire up’ a potential investor- investment was not something I was really looking for, but this is a biodiesel-industry-informed person, and a real smart businessman, so it was interesting brainstorming with him about the direction my project could take.) It’s all quite exciting and I learned a tremendous amount on that trip.

I got home and got on the phone for another round of discussions with farmers. I’ve been talking to farmers large and small about two different types of systems- my 10,000 gallon a month commercial-type design which I’d like to deploy, and, if it works as planned, market myself as a consultant/technology provider for, and an unrelated smaller, open-source design for the ‘upsized homebrew’ system similar to what we’ve been using in co-ops around the country. The small open-source system is what I think of as the ‘CSA plant’- community supported agriculture farms tend to be smaller organic vegetable or fruit growers who use one or three tractors, own a couple of market trucks, and not spend a lot of money running irrigation equipment. Their needs are really different than the larger farms.

For the larger 10,000 gallon per month system, I’ve had an idea for a while to put together an R&D cost-sharing consortium for developing this system by collaborating with several farmers/fleets who want one. The theory is that 5 or so businesses buy in to offset the costs of the first pilot plant and to pay for some of the initial engineering studies required by regulatory agencies, and that the data gathered from the pilot plant phase makes it easier for the rest of them to build their systems later. The first farmer/fleet physically builds the pilot plant and gets to make the mistakes, with the risk offset by the others’ investment. I help with design and experimentation. The other owners of the consortium get the documentation to build their own , and everyone goes their separate ways after the pilot plant phase is complete. This of course might be more complicated than desired- working with multiple partners- farmers aren’t known for being good businessmen necessarily- they know farming and are not necessarily product development experts- and business collaboratives like this are tricky in general. I think I originally wrote about this here.

Today I was on the phone with a farmer in Kentucky who’s working on the CSA Plant type of system himself, I grilled him on the finer points of animal feed and the economics of oilseed production. He’s exploring sunflowers and thinking of buying this press: http://flinthillsdiesel.com/

Then I wrote several annoying letters to various other folks from the forums, pestering them about farm biodiesel production and trying to finagle meetings or phone conversations out of them. The beat goes on…

I went back and forth about whether to go to the NBB convention this week to drum up some enthusiasm for the project, or potential partners for the consortium.

It bothers me tremendously that there is currently a bit of a ‘circus’ atmosphere around small scale production- I get the impression for various reasons that there are a lot of people hawking systems that don’t work, or haven’t been adequately tested, and a lot of bad fuel continues getting out there from both small and large producers.

I think it’s extra bad in California where liberals are so supportive of ’sustainability’ that there’s a ready-made niche for anyone who markets their company as being part of the ’sustainability’ movement. If you’re an investor, do your homework. Research thoroughly. Get hard facts. Remember that EVERYBODY in biodiesel is singing an ‘ideals’ tune. Some of them are awfully good orators, and dishonest businessmen. This research is very difficult to do in several cases I know about in my state, and I"m sure that when it all shakes out there’ll be a lot of small investors who didn’t do their homework and who’ll lose their little life savings they’ve investing in some of these rather scary companies. On the other hand, several distributors and other players in the industry are running an honest business and losing money, or close to it, and yet supplying an important role as suppliers, advocates, educators- it’s difficult to tell who’s legitimate as an investment, and who isn’t. Im sure they’ll all be at the NBB and this weekend’s CBCC hawking their wares and promoting themselves as leaders of the local, sustainable biodiesel movement.

It reminds me of the tax credit era solar thermal manufacturers, who did tremendous damage to the solar hot water equipment industry by providing bad products at a time when tax credits incentives worked the wrong way. High energy prices, biodiesel tax incentives, idealism on behalf of consumers, and poor quality control are inspiring the same thing in my opinion at the moment, and for various reasons I think I can do better sitting it out with the farmer/fleet focus until some of the BS shakes out, which I expect would happen in the next year or two. I have the feeling that the farmers/fleet customers are going to be a little more pragmatic than some of the other industry players I"ve encoutered. Or so I hope.

This message has been brought to you by My Inner Republican.

Lyle's in San Diego, reporting on the conventions:

February 04, 2006
More than Fuel
from http://www.biofuels.coop/blog/archives/000376.html

This afternoon we hung around San Diego to check out the scene before the kickoff of the Sustainable Biodiesel Summit.

We are on tomorrow. I have to say I was worried in late afternoon, when only a handful of hard core biodiesel devotees were gathered in the lobby of the hotel. At one point I took a seat next to Leif and Frankee, and they were geeking out big time on exciting pipe reducers they have known.

We went down to the harbor to see the sights, and when we returned the hotel was packed. The Oxygen Collective’s bus had pulled in. We think of that as “Forrest’s Bus” since he has told us so much about it.

Daryl Hannah had arrived with her entourage, which meant there were film crews in the lobby.

Colorado had arrived. So had Minnesota. The New Mexico contingent pulled in. The only thing scheduled was registration and dinner, and it was by far the largest dinner of grassroots activists I have ever scene.

Dinner was held at a local-foods/vegetarian/Mexican joint—typical California style. Rachel and I reflected that we could not seat a crowd this big in Chatham County.

Tomorrow Kimber and I launch this conference with a few remarks. Here is what I intend to say:

More Than Fuel

This time of year I get to spend a whole bunch of time talking about unity. And I find that when it comes to the biodiesel community, unity is a difficult subject to wrestle with. Here we are on the eve of the National Biodiesel Board conference, and we are having our own conference. It reminds me of this place in Brazil where the white waters of the Amazon collide with the black waters of the Rio Negro, and the two rivers head to the ocean together, but do not combine.

We don’t only lack unity as an industry—we lack it amidst our own ranks. And so does the NBB. I think it would be better for the fuel if we had all the voices in the same conversation.

A few days ago I heard the CEO of Southwest Airlines on the radio. He talked about how our “attitudes” toward one another is a choice we make, and how it is possible to hold diverse points of view inside a single conversation. I think Southwest manages to do this as a big company, and I wish we could figure out a way to do it as a small industry.

Somehow I would like to convey to the National Biodiesel Board that although we are critical of them at times, we are not sitting here with pitchforks and torches trying to burn them to the ground.

By the way, the NBB has now entered the blogosphere, and they have promised to push their conference coverage out to the web for those who cannot attend. For those of you who follow the NBB online, there should be a more thorough coverage than you may have enjoyed in years gone by.


When I started in grassroots biodiesel, I thought it was just about the fuel. In fact I used to get frustrated by those who came to biodiesel for anything other than fuel. At the time I just wanted to ramp production up, get larger and larger batches coming off, meet my fuel needs—and Rachel’s, and Leif’s, and so on and so on. More fuel, more fuel, more fuel—it was all about the fuel.

And in those early days I would get ticked off by hangers-on who would show up to talk about other things. For me, biodiesel was not about peace, love, or understanding.

“Hey, pal, if you came here to talk about democracy you are in the wrong place—this is about making more biodiesel…”

But as the years wear on, I’m finding my disposition changing. In North Carolina we have innocently created a local B100 Community of a couple of hundred users, and we have accidentally spawned a handful of similar efforts across the state. There has not been intention in our efforts. There is no way we could have planned it this way.

Our efforts, in fact, have been profoundly influenced by the California experience. Your community is more mature than ours. We incidentally attended the first ever “Shadow Conference” out here three years ago, and were blown away and inspired by what we saw.

Back then, in the courtyard of a borrowed Community College that Caleb had lined up, I went to Kimber’s session on fuel distribution, and from that I struck upon the idea of a mobile fuel distribution source in the form of a tank truck. That ended up happening. Our “eye-popping” tank truck became the heart of a distribution strategy that has literally pumped thousands of gallons each month into the user community in the Piedmont of North Carolina. Our truck also inspired our friends in Asheville, North Carolina, who topped us with a larger unit, and who are making B100 available in their community today.

We went home from California like honeybees loaded with legs full of fresh pollen, and that cross-pollination is evident all over North Carolina today.

And today, that’s what we are doing at this Sustainable Biodiesel Summit. You’re going to leave today with a spinning head full of ideas about fuel quality, storage and handling, transportation, pricing, favorite brands of pumps, where to get bulk fuel lines, and on and on. You can learn more here in 15 minutes of cornering someone in the hallway on a break than you can learn in a month of trial and error in your backyard.

And at this Summit you will hear the stories of others. They will embolden you. They will take away your fears. They will enable you to act. And you are guaranteed to be inspired.

The fact is that people are drawn to biodiesel. And if our experience is any indication, we will never be able to make enough fuel to keep everyone full.

And why is that?

Because people rush to biodiesel in search of community. In grassroots biodiesel you can have a say in how you meet your fuel needs. Our pumps aren’t as fast, our conversations are longer, and our connections with one another go way deeper than what you will get at a typical gas station fill. You still can’t get your windshield washed at Piedmont Biofuels, and most of our locations are inconvenient as all get out—so why do more and more people come?

I would like to think that we have played a role in the “open source” nature of grassroots biodiesel. Instead of waiting for patents and hiding our secrets, as a community we tend to push whatever we have learned out to the net --from which everyone can help themselves to information. You see very little proprietary action in the backyard.

So let’s think about software for a moment. The reason people flock to “open source” is because they can have some sort of voice in the development and consumer community. When you are subject to the hegemony of Microsoft, you find you have very little voice in software. When you are using, or producing open source software, your ideas can get traction. They might not make you rich—but you tend to get credit for the contributions you have made.

The same is true in grassroots biodiesel. Most users of petroleum abide by the strictures of an oppressive energy regime, and have virtually no say in how they get their fuel. Grassroots biodiesel is different. In the sustainable biodiesel world, you can have a voice in meeting your own fuel needs. You can control process. You can control quality. And perhaps best of all you can look long and hard into the mirror of conservation. Today you are not going to find yourself signing a lot of non-disclosure agreements. Rather, you are going to brush up against experienced geniuses that will readily tell you all they know.

Is that about the fuel? Certainly. And it’s about more than fuel. I don’t want to get up here and say that I came to biodiesel in order to heal a damaged planet. I recently watched a video from the Hudson Valley Biodiesel Cooperative in which their main dumpster diver talks about how as soon as we solve our spiritual connection to the earth, all other problems will be solved. And while I’m not here to support that claim, he makes a good point.

In the Hudson Valley there is more to biodiesel than scooping used veggie from a dumpster. In North Carolina there is more to biodiesel than keeping everybody’s fuel gauge on “F.” And here in California, there is more to biodiesel than you can even comprehend.

I have found that the more fuel you make, and the more fuel you distribute, and the deeper you push into the grassroots world of biodiesel, the more you realize that that this movement is about more than just fuel.

At this conference we have some of the greatest minds in grassroots biodiesel. In this room you will find those who have been making fuel, distributing fuel, and building the biodiesel community for as long as it has existed. And in this room you can find an answer to every question you might have.

Bring it on. You want to heal a hurting planet? Are you into peace love and understanding? Do you have some sort of nasty emulsion you would like to crack? Anyone interested in incorporating tumeric into your titrations? Are you wanting to know how to get your operation legal? Are you here to figure out fuel distribution? Or are you simply wanting to join into a deep conversation about how you can meet your community’s fuel needs?

It’s about more than fuel. Let’s get busy…
Posted by Lyle at February 4, 2006 02:52 AM

Then apparently THIS happened:
http://www.biofuels.coop/blog/archives/000377.html

February 05, 2006
Up a Notch

There weren't enough chairs set up for all the participants of the Sustainable Biodiesel Conference, which meant we packed the room from top to bottom.

I didn't get a head count, but it was way bigger than last year in Pittsboro.

And it was way better.

The fact that it is in a hotel is a big help. Everyone eats here, and crashes here, and interacts here, making it way better than distributing heads in beds throughout the woods.

Kimber, SaraHope, and Jennifer, Gretchen, Caleb and company have done an admirable job. This is by far the best "shadow" conference ever. It's well attended, well organized, and generally well run. Sessions begin and end on time, just like a professional conference would.

I did the keynote this morning, which was fine. It was followed by Leif and Rachel who not only facilitated a conference wide conversation about biofuels education, but also distributed a bunch of Biofuels Curriculum CDs to educators from all over.

They were followed by Eric Bowen, the lawyer who helped the B100 Community offer comments on the IRS regulations last year. He's joined a venture firm and has become an expert in the taxation aspects of biodiesel, I was in awe as I watched him navigate the muddiest waters possible. He's a massive stud. I pulled him aside later and told him that I went into his session with a bag full of grenades I was prepared to lob, and I was so taken with his knowledge that I held my fire.

Lunch came in the form of whole food organics from a local caterer and was just fine.

And the afternoon blew me away. There was a San Diego politician who kicked things off by saying high gasoline prices are a good thing. She was followed by the legendary Shaine Tyson, formerly of NREL who told stories and showed graphs and blew our minds.

There was a session of fuel quality, with Kent Bullard, Shaine Tyson, and Randall that was better than any session I have ever attended-including my time at Iowa State.

Listening to their take on the industry, it occurred to me that there is no reason to "join forces" with the NBB. This morning I spoke about just that, but by late afternoon it occurred to me that there was more talent on stage at this conference than at any previous NBB conference I had ever attended (all of them), and I thought perhaps we should simply compete. When you have guys like Randall explaining the "Weekend Ozone Effect," whereby NOx decreases yet smog goes up, there is no reason to go anywhere else.

This conference had by far the best address of emissions I have ever attended. And of fuel quality. And of the tax terrain. I've been to a lot of conferences, and it dawned on me that if the grassroots community can pull this off, the market alone will move our way.

Tonight at dinner, Joe Jobe pulled in. He's the Executive Director of the National Biodiesel board, who is not a big fan of Biodiesel Power. He took the stage, and took questions from all comers, and as usual he did a masterful job.

Kumar thanked him profusely for the courage to show up, and I echoed Kumar's sentiment. I then repeated a concept that I had iterated in my morning talk, which was,
"Is there any chance we can move in with you-maybe offer a grassroots track at the National Biodiesel Board conference?"

He did not dismiss the idea. He's good that way. And I felt that our crowd warmed to the idea.

There were some confrontational comments, none of them harsh enough to knock him off his horse.

When he departed we returned to our party, and it turned out to be a remarkable evening.
This Sustainable Biodiesel Summit is up a notch from the one we staged last year. Which is up two notches from the first one in California.

The community is growing more sophisticated. The fuel is getting more inroads. And there is a chance that the sustainable biodiesel community which this conference represents might very well merge with the commercial community represented by the NBB.

It's very heady stuff. And it would be good for the fuel. I need to think about this more as I head back down to the party...


Posted by Lyle at February 5, 2006 12:42 AM

Then Kumar beat him to the punch by reporting this:
http://ybiofuels.livejournal.com/77115.html?mode=reply

SBS Wrap Up Liveblogging

Big important good news update here

The SBS conference is wrapping up with a big roundtable discussion right now, starting out by identifying who we are. A lot of keywords are being thrown around ("information alchemists", "conscientious biofuel innovators"). Personally, I've been kind of searching my feelings regarding this whole B100 thing, and I keep coming back to the phrase "leading edge". Without us, people really don't believe that a more sustainable definition for biodiesel, beyond "petroleum extender", exists. Even with us, some still don't believe it. We need to grow, and with our growth, we provide to the industry a capacity for creativity and evolution that wouldn't exist if it were just a bunch of petroleum and ag interests wearing suits.

There's basically a big discussion about branding right now. I'm not into that. I'm more into determining activities and following through on them soon and frequently. What good is this "lobbying group" if all it does is make us feel every year or two?

Alright! Kimber is talking about what HER BUSINESS needs from a group like this, i.e. lobbying help with insurance issues, quality standards, use permits, etc. She wants to see a national precedent-setting open-source organization.

The fact that Senator Kehoe visited us perhaps indicates the beginning of our group as a lobbying force.

I've got a lot of thoughts, but I'm tired right now, and trying my hardest to just listen. This stuff is intense, and I've got a few more days of it at the NBB. I'll try to tie up everything with a breakdown summary of the SBS conference in general later.

Then Lyle wrote this:
http://www.biofuels.coop/blog/archives/000378.html

February 06, 2006
Breaking Camp

As the Sustainable Biodiesel Summit drew to a close, we hopped in a cab and headed to the Gastown section of San Diego, where the National Biodiesel Board is holding its conference.

Today was as amazing as yesterday. I was blown away by presentations by Blue Sun out of Colorado, and by Shaine Tyson.

She was right in the middle of a feedstock breakdown-a riveting analysis of each penny spent to grow oilseed, crush it, sell the meal, make the fuel, and...my cell phone rang.

I ran out of the room, and took the call. It was Zafer. He was building a fort in the woods, and was calling to see if I knew where he could get a woodstove.

I told him there used to be a woodstove in Jim's storage shed on the other side of the creek, that was probably still there. And I gave him Jim's number. And we chatted about the proposed fort that he intended to build. Apparently the boys found a pair of pallets and they were on fire with construction plans.

It makes me wonder if the human animal is emotionally pre-disposed toward building. These kids have a house. But they need to build their own space.

Back in North Carolina the bluebirds will be shopping for homes right now. I've cleaned and repaired all of my boxes and I hope a few of them get selected this season.

Tonight Kumar scooped me by having his notebook going during the wrap up session, and he published a blog entry as the group was in discussion. Clearly this is cheating, and I will need to discuss it with him tomorrow.

I have an image of a bunch of reporters rushing to a wall of pay phones to call the story into their editors-juxtaposed with the sight of Kumar calmly sitting in a meeting with a notebook on his lap. Taking notes? Doing email? No. He's getting a blog entry off while I am listening and yakking. Unbelievable.

Tonight we went out on the town with Emily from Fry-O-Diesel in Philadelphia. They are the folks who are working with trap grease as a feedstock. Since people will pay to have their trap grease hauled away, it would seem to be the holy grail of biodiesel.

She is an organizer. During the wrap-up session, which she and Sara Hope led, the crowd unanimously approved the notion of starting some sort of organization which could speak for grassroots biodiesel.

Or sustainable biodiesel. Or sustainable fuels. Or something. At the first Shadow Conference in California in 2004 the idea surfaced several times, but was continually squashed by the Berkeley contingent who felt that no one else could speak for them, or who didn't want to talk about money because talking about money bored them, or whatever.

This time the feeling was unanimous. It was not confrontational. It was not controversial. It was merely accepted that sustainable biodiesel needs a more organized voice in the world today, and when asked who was willing to help fund it, every hand on the porch went up.

Charris from Grassolean had the idea of a "Sustainability Rating" that got a lot of traction. I think he has been pushing the idea for years.

It appears that Charris and Daryl Hannah and Kent Bullard will be our interface to the NBB with this idea. Daryl participated in the conference conversations like the rest of us—not as a celebrity that turns heads, but as someone who is genuinely interested in ways to make sustainable biodiesel happen. Many hated the idea of "moving in with the NBB," the idea of grassroots becoming a track at next year's conference.

All in all it felt hopeful, and peaceful, and I believe that the Sustainable Biodiesel Summit ended on a high note.

Tomorrow we wade into the NBB Conference.
Posted by Lyle at February 6, 2006 02:10 AM

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I"m buried in
Net, work
http://www.girlmark.com/blog/index.php?p=84

Today was as overbusy with farm biomass plant discussions as Friday was. On Friday I’d pulled what was literally a 9-5 marathon session of phone calls and email having to do with both ends of biodiesel business. Welcome to small business- it still feels like I’m participating in my hobby or activism, but it’s starting to head into something more concrete. My head hurts from all the talking. I’ll be heading down to the county office to pick up my business license next week.

I had a series of fascinating conversations this weekend with engineers and farmers large and small: two educators, three dairy and cattle farmers, two engineers, an organic farmer, and a soon-to-be Republican candidate for Congress. People interested in sunflower oil, waste oil, sugar beet ethanol, biomass of all kinds, and da Insta-Pro press. And a partridge in a pear tree- that would be me. This idea of collaborating with a number of players is starting to take somewhat of a more concrete shape. Or if I don’t collaborate in a business sense, there’ll be a lot of info sharing that ought to come of my exploration into these farm projects. I’m already trying to connect people with each other and it’s amazing what a good fit some of them are for each other, as far as sharing equipment purchasing research and the like.

It turned out that several people I contacted from the forums, were folks I"d already met in real life, or otherwise had connections with, or who knew each other. There were a lot of “a-ha moments". The homebrew classes are doing their job which I’m now endlessly grateful for- I’ve done a better job of meeting the people, and finding out what information is buried where around the country, than I could have had I sat at home and focused on teaching locally two years ago, which could have had different short-term rewards.

It was really painful doing the tour I did in the fall of ‘03 but now I"m kind of reaping the long-term results to some extent, because of who I’d met and a variety of things I got to learn in the process.

I think my strengths in this business are that a. I have a pretty good handle on troubleshooting quality control problems from a technical standpoint and b. I have a REALLY good handle on where the information is buried, on the net and otherwise, and whom to ask when I don’t know the answer. I’ve worked (intentionally) at building up connections all over the spectrum, and it’s time to cash in and call on everybody for information.

For example, today I heard from an organic farmer who came to one of my classes and wants to grow sunflower and gave me a lot of details about his size operation, needs, history, etc. On Friday I had by chance spoken with a farmer/educator who had more or less the answers to everything that the organic guy was asking me today. So I’ll just connect the two of them and let them brainstorm together about some of the solutions that I don’t have good answers for. Maybe the “CSA System"- the little open-source ‘upscaled homebrew’ plant- can evolve with them speaking and comparing notes on a seed press and the sunflower processing equipment.

There was another dairyman I met in one of my classes in the Midwest on the tour up there, with whom I’d chatted briefly with about glycerine feeding to ruminants, which his family farm was going to have a nutritionist analyze. Recently- a year and a half later- I wanted to touch base on that data, so my to-do list said that I was to write to him next week.

On Friday I wrote to what I thought was a Colorado-based engineer who had posted somethign interesting on one of the forums. When he wrote me back, he turned out to be the man I’d met whose family had the herd nutritionist look at the glycerine-molasses replacement (?) possibility. And all these dairy guys are looking at the same seed press, which means there’ll be some share-able data coming out of one of these farms this year about it’s operation.

At this point the missing piece of the puzzle for me is that I"d like to talk with an oilseed researcher. Oh, wait, I know where there is one, in South Dakota…

Anyone else interested in talking?

alovert@b100.org

http://www.girlmark.com/blog/index.php?p=85
voice recognition

Today I tried something new. I'm still at square one with my right hand injury, and typing really aggravates it. I have been fooling around with the left-handed typing using the 'Dvorak for left-hand' layout, which is one of the options installed on Windows machines. Of course it doesn't work so well with a laptop -- the touchpad mouse gets in the way because that is where your hand wants a palm rest. It does feel a lot like learning to play a new musical instrument, something that I've been through several times. I'm starting to get marginally better at the typing. Because I'm a fast touch typist with two hands, it's very difficult to go back to looking at the keyboard, which have to do while learning the left-hand layout.

However, right now, I am actually using a voice recognition program instead of typing at all. A friend who cannot type worth a damn gave me his copy of Dragon software, this being version 4 or something very ancient. It works well enough -- you train it for half an hour to recognize yourself reading various words (in fact it gave me 2001 a space Odyssey to read), then give it some of your own writing samples so it can figure out what the hell you're saying more easily. In my case, I gave it the entire text of my homebrewing book to read. It now recognizes the word "carboy" flawlessly, which makes me laugh. It was amusing seeing what exactly it thought 'strange' about my vocabulary after it had analyzed my book for weird words.

I like it well enough that I went ahead and ordered a copy of the most recent version, which is several years newer, as I have heard that it has improved greatly.

It's even more amusing when the microphone comes on by accident when I'm on the phone. The program allows you use voice commands to browse around documents, and to execute various commands. I had a document open when a long phone call came on, and something in what I was saying triggered the program's own microphone to come back on in the middle of the conversation. It turned my document into gibberish, and of course you can't laugh while using it or it writes more gibberish trying to interpret your laugh.

having spent just a very short time training the program, and getting myself used to using it, on extremely impressed with what a useful tool this is. All you non typists, this is worth trying.

Page 9 is a great read, thanks alot for condensing all of this info for me/us.

you're welcome! I think that Forrest's blogs aggregator is working again, too:
http://biodieselblogs.truffula.net/

We'll have to have him add Graydon's blog, along with a few others- 'leavingthegrid', and Jurgen's blog referenced above, is another good one.

Mark

2/8/2006
off to Houston
http://www.girlmark.com/blog/index.php?p=87



Well it seemed as if I’d barely gotten home, when it’s time to get on another plane. and that’s just the beginning of the next few months worth of traveling to teach around the USA.

I had not actually unpacked, and was still basically living out of my carry-on bag in my room.

ok, whatever, I’m whining- it’s not that bad this time. There was a real defining moment at the start of the truck tour that I did in the fall of 2004, when I found myself eating breakfast at a table in a convenience store after night a driving, staring in the fluorescent glare out at the institutional floor tiles with little bits of mop caught in the corner, and it really hit me that because I was doing the trip on such a shoestring budget, for the next two months I would be at the mercy of crappy road food and institutional amenities. Like plastic forks and microwave burritos at 6 AM at a minimart and brushing my teeth in a rest stop sink. And it felt at the time like I was committing myself to a homeless shelter for survival or enduring a hospital stay, or entering two months at some other institution designed for handling the needs of the many, the bare minimum way. Driving felt kind of gritty that way.

This time around, it’s just airlines- a few hours and it’s over. And I get a week in between to eat the roommates’ good cooking and sleep in my own fantastic bed. Then I"m off again. That ain’t too bad.

While I’m gone I hope that I can get the van fuel system timed. I really love that van (the voice recognition program, which looks for context to figure out what the hell you’re saying, keeps interpreting ‘I really love that van’ as ‘I really love that man’. It also adamantly refuses to curse, no matter how much I try to train it to say ‘hell’ and ‘damn’).

Anyway, the ace mechanic at East Bay Truck and Auto, who was recommended by everyone, just had a stroke and won’t be back to work, so I am trying out some new place for the Ford fuel system work. The van is awesome, and it has no visible smoke, ever, but it gets 10 mpg. I think those two things are related the- that the pump timing is way off in the direction that cuts down on particle emissions but destroys fuel economy.

After just ten days of living out of my carry-on bag on the southeast trip, I’m somewhat dreading spending four or five weeks later this spring on another long trip. So I’m hoping that I can take the van out that time, and somehow RV-ize it before then so I can take the comfortable bed with me this time. But not if that means 10 mpg.

Off to Houston, wish me luck. I’m scared of Texas, I think.

Mark

Oh , there is nothing scary here , just alot of rednecks . I never did find out when you will be coming to town , but would really like to be able to try to get together while you are here . Maybe we can buy you dinner or something . I imagine you will be staying somewhere over by IAH airport , that is not far from me . I will send you my numbers in a PM , if you find time when you get here just give me a call . I have lots of free time for the rest of the week so jsut about anytime will be good for us . If there is anything else yuo need while visiting just let me know . Are you renting a car , or just getting rides ? If you need someone to shuttle you around I can help with that , or maybe loan you a truck for the weekend if that would be better for you . Anyway , just let me know if there is anything I can do to help .
Shannon

fantastic, thank you. i am renting a gasser to get around, but would love to meet up.

mark

I am coming in to town tomorrow, and I love to meet up with you. I have a fair amount of free time before Saturday moving in: definitely send your phone number, my email is Alovert@b100.org

Lyle writes, no doubt pissing off many who attended:
http://www.biofuels.coop/blog/archives/000381.html


February 09, 2006
Leaving for Home


I was really looking forward to the glycerin session at NBB today, but my enthusiasm was for not.

These sessions are all packed. If you arrive late, you stand. Each session has as many attendees in a single room as we normally see at our entire conferences. And this morning people packed in for glycerin at 8:00 a.m.

What the crowd wanted were new uses. New ideas. What they received were some mumbling chemists with molecular models fumbling about with powerpoint and reading points off the screen.

There was one fellow from the USDA who indicated that they were sending scientists out to biodiesel facilities to do soil samples from spills and splashes to look for opportunistic organisms which could guide them toward new products.

Very interesting. Sort of like the ethno botanists who head into the jungle in search of cures for human disease, these guys are heading into the soils for clues.

And while this was intriguing, the session was way over the head of the audience and pretty much missed the mark entirely. There was an entertaining Rabbi who provided an overview of how to keep glycerin kosher, which is fine for those in virgin oils, but irrelevant to us when we are constructing a multi-feedstock facility.

It's another bright beautiful day in San Diego, and I am carrying my jacket in anticipation of a cold jetway in Raleigh. I can't wait to get home. Five straight days of biodiesel conferencing is enough.

One of the problems with the NBB sessions is that they are so packed, and have so many newcomers, the information transfer needs to be slow. Sessions at the SBS were much faster, tighter, and more informative.

Last night Rachel and I went to a World Energy soiree and I had an amazing engagement with a venture capitalist from New York City. He's a ethanol guy who is sniffing around the edge of the industry to see if there is any action for him.

He talked about limited market size and insufficient demand.

I talked about greed and unsustainable venture capitalists.

He talked about economies of scale and why he voted to Bush.

I talked about distributed energy production, local economics, and how this administration has done such a rotten job of managing energy that they are passing out the pork to anyone who can harvest a single BTU.

He told me about plays he has made in the oil patch, and about ethanol. He told me I should be afraid of subsidies.

I told him that every venture he has ever banked has been totally and completely subsidized by a world that lets him consume resources for free.

It was a fantastic conversation. Every now and then a waiter would pass by with hunks of steak teriaki, or shrimp on cold cucumber slices. The local beer passed by in abundance, and I explained that I was working on reducing the number of miles traveled for the beer I drink. He pondered the concept and as a nod of respect, switched to the local brew.

If I am to be an ambassador for sustainability, this was certainly an easy gig. I think I reached him on a number of levels, and left the party deeply satisfied.

Perhaps I should hang out at hospitality suites, with free food and drink, spreading the good word. Or perhaps we should take this up to the roof where the hot tub is always up to temperature.


Posted by Lyle at February 9, 2006 12:15 AM

Dinner at Hooters with Mr and Mrs Dodgeram
or, the 88th chapter of the chronicles of Girl Mark:
http://www.girlmark.com/blog/index.php?p=88

I’m home for one day in after my Houston class, and I go back to the airport to fly to Denver at 6 AM tomorrow- this time, it’s work on the small producer plant that Steve is putting together there. Hopefully I will also get to see John Bush and Lorance and John Meuser, the people who are working on the biodiesel co-op conference in July. 0h, and, while I am home, I get to write a check for my remaining gas chromatograph parts, which are now on order!

Houston Biodiesel is an inspiring operation. They’re a very business-like, informed distributor of commercial biodiesel but they also homebrew a small amount, so we had a very interesting processor to show the class, and got to show people the effects of the glycerol remix prewash and the dramatic way that it reduces soap over normal processing. I absolutely loved meeting those guys. It’s great to see people who have a good head on their shoulders involved in biodiesel distribution.

Of course the class was sold out just like the others, so I got to start off the weekend by performing the now-regular ritual of ejecting rudely one man who has (also rudely) arrived without pre-registering “just to see if someone doesn’t show up and I can take their place “. Jeez, people! don’t do that! It’s so unfair to everyone else on the waiting list who bothered to ask in advance.

Houston itself was terrifying. The first thing I saw from the air as we were landing was a massive Wal-Mart. I spent a couple of days of class prep running around in a rented SUV around the cancerous ring of shopping development that encircles Houston. Like most places that suffered Los Angeles-like development, Houston seemed to have a corresponding ring of 'dead malls'- older developments that had been abandoned as the city limits grew- in the middle, between the downtown and the outermost crust of Retail Development around the town. Strangely, the Dead Malls were full of companies that sold discount furniture.

Actually had no idea that Houston is something like the fourth-largest city in the U.S. which makes me really appreciate how terrible the hurricane evacuation must’ve been during Rita. It must have been like trying to evacuate Los Angeles.

The really aweome thing was that Shannon, who posts as Dodgeram on several of the biodiesel forums, came out and co-taught the class. He’s one of the people whose posts I always agree with, and obviously he really thinks through everything about this process. I think he also helped out one of the other forum members who evacuated to Houston from New Orleans during Katrina and that guy raved about Shannon being great. We had him do a talk and demonstration about the use of Magnesol, and about the glycerol remix wash, and more. I always love having experienced homebrewers around during the class because I think it means more for the students to hear about how the process actually works for a ‘normal person’ who has this as a hobby, rather than how it works for me, who focuses on biodiesel all the time. Here's Shannon's writeup of the event


On Friday night after hours of socializing at Houston Biodiesel, Shannon, and his wife Bonnie and I, tried to go out to eat. We were starving by then, and hadn’t thought about the fact that was the Friday of Valentine’s Day weekend – every restaurant had a full parking lot, and the good place we wanted to go had a 1 1/2 hour wait for a table. Bonnie had a great idea – we went to Hooters, where people were least likely to bring their dates for a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner. For those who have been hiding under rocks, or perhaps living in Australia, Hooters is a chain of college-bar themed ‘restaurants’ whose claim to fame is hiring waitresses with boob jobs and squeezing them into very skimpy collegiate sports-ish (?) costumes and flesh-toned pantihose to serve food , and, of course, beer, to drunks. There was a famous lawsuit a few years ago where a group of men alleged sex discrimination because Hooters would not hire them as waiters, and am sure it was amusing to see the whole concept described in lawyerese by the defense.

A few days ago There was a thread on the infopop biodiesel discussion forum where we North Americans talked a lot of trash about the strange things that people in the UK eat. For example, I’ve heard many horrified reports about deep-fried pizza. They serve it (over there) with vinegar drizzled on top. Yick.

Well, I hereby retract all terrible things I said about the British, the Scots, and their food, because on Friday night I ate deep-fried pickles. We ordered a huge bowl of them. Bonnie said that when she was pregnant this was what she craved all the time, and that she would go to Hooters ‘all the time’ because of this pregnancy-induced craving. I guess the stereotypes about pregnant women and weird food combinations must be true. Personally, I don’t like deep-fried food very much to begin with (spending a couple of months in Mexico City and eating a lot of overfried street food there, cured me of loving fried things for good) - and making biodiesel for several years has turned me off to the flavor (and odor) even more. So I was amazed that deep-fried pickles is actually pretty good. It’s kind of like putting relish on fried fast food. It makes me think that the deep-fried pizza of Scottish infamy may actually not be as disgustingly gross as it sounds. Now, deep-fried Mars bars, that sounds gross. And they eat that. Over there.