The last letter from the Krisco legacy Posted on December 19th, 2003 by

Here’s one final hello from the Krisco Kids. The Veggie Voyage may be officially over, but it’s still hard to let go of a life of travel and adventure. It’s back to the real world for Phil and Aaron in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Duluth, Minnesota. It’s back to the working world and the job hunting world. But why not just one more email from the grease hunting world? For old times’ sake.

All told, we put about 7,000 miles on the little VW pickup over the last couple months. If we did our math right (we wrote the mileage down every time we switched between diesel and grease), then our veggie oil conversion allowed the VW to go over 127 miles per gallon of diesel. That’s after Rapid City, South Dakota, of course, where we finally got the veggie system working reliably.

For your viewing pleasure, we’ve put a few digital pictures from the trip up on the internet – go to http://www.pixagogo.com/?3106395511 . There is even a little map showing the route we took and depicting just a few of the memorable events from the trip. Sorry there aren’t even more pictures – apparently Aaron’s camera had a penchant for malfunctioning just like the truck. By the way, since the Krisco duo is now on a hiatus from traveling, you’ll have to write to Aaron at aaroncrowell@lycos.com or Phil at phillipgraeve@hotmail.com

Thinking back on the voyage:

Some of the most frequent questions that were asked of us by hosts on the trip and family and friends when we returned were related to the process of searching out grease, asking for it, and turning it into fuel grade quality.

Since our sparse number of digital pictures doesn’t do justice to the process, here is some imagery that might fill in the gaps after all those earlier emails. In the spirit of all the holiday cooking going on, here is a recipe for successful grease gathering:

  1. Change into ugly, dirty grease garb (if you have big curly hair, please wear a hat).
  2. Designate a driver and a “diver” (the diver should have a rag and a stick and have done some warm up stretches already).
  3. Drive to the back of a restaurant (preferably Asian), scan for a black bin or barrel, and pull the vehicle up as close as possible.
  4. Diver jumps out and opens bin. Stir the oil and watch it drip off the stick. If there is enough grease in the bin and the oil is runny and fairly clear, then proceed. If not, then drive to another restaurant.
  5. Knock on the BACK door and ask whoever answers if you can take some used cooking oil. If they say yes (and it is almost NEVER that simple), then ask if you can use an electrical outlet for a small bucket heater. And if they are thoroughly confused by this point, it’s probably time to tell them the veggie fuel story.
  6. Dip a pitcher into the grease bin and fill up a five gallon bucket. If it’s windy, things will get sloppy.
  7. Place the farm supply heater in the bucket and warm the oil to make it thinner.
  8. Set up the filtration system: intake hose with wire mesh strainer inside PVC tubing, 12 volt pump that is powered by the car battery, 10 micron fuel filter, and output hose sitting in a 5 gallon bucket that has been converted into a “mega-funnel” (one of our internet pictures has a good visual of the funnel).
  9. Flip the pump switch and cross your fingers that you selected good quality grease. If it’s good, you’ll fill a bucket in 2 minutes. If it’s dirty, it’ll take half an hour and an extra fuel filter replacement.
  10. Drain the oil into your veggie tank.
  11. Clean up your mess, get in the truck, and drive off using cleaner, cheaper waste vegetable oil fuel!

Note: this recipe is sort of like making a soufflé – it probably won’t be a smooth process on the first (or tenth) try.

Every oil gathering situation was unique for us – particularly the manner in which we found ourselves asking for permission to take some used cooking oil. Once in a while we immediately found a manager at the back door who understood us perfectly. More often than not, we discovered ourselves pleading fruitlessly with a restaurant worker who barely spoke English.

This person would usually spontaneously disappear in the middle of our conversation to search for a coworker who spoke English more fluently. We have knocked on back doors and been quickly surrounded by a very curious and excited kitchen staff. We have knocked on locked front doors and conversed with some shadowy face behind the tinted glass. We have stood patiently by the “Please Wait to be Seated” sign while successive levels of employees and management tripped over our request for grease like a row of dominoes. Most memorably, we have been caught inspecting a barrel of oil just as the owner and his family drove up to open the Chinese restaurant – the father’s perplexed face seemed to say, “Are they thieves? But why in the world would they be stealing that nasty grease?” His son just chuckled at us, laughing even more once he heard our story.

Now that you can imagine some of the odd situations that the Krisco Kid landed us in, here is a small selection of some of the immediate responses to our well-rehearsed, “Can we take some of your used cooking oil?”:

  • “What?”
  • “Huh?”
  • “You’re kidding, right?”
  • blank stare
  • “Okay, you can have the oil, but you can’t take the big metal barrel.”
  • “Oh, yes please! Do you live here? You can come back every week!”
  • “Just don’t make a mess.”
  • “Sure, go ahead…but you HAVE to take it ALL.”
  • “Fine, just keep the back door closed…it’s cold out.”
  • “You want to use the grease for bear bait?”
  • “No no, we don’t want any.” (apparently some busy, confused managers who didn’t converse much in English thought we were trying to SELL them some oil).

That’s all folks! Strive for peace, fill up on grease, and keep Americans cooking all those deep fried turkey feasts!

Happy holidays to you all,

Aaron and Phil

 

Categories: Alumni

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