Pogo is the name of a funky toy that I used to bounce around on as a kid. But nevermind that. It's also the name of the guy in charge at Pogo Organics in Olney, Maryland. The motto at their website is, "The biological approach to plant and land stewardship." I'll say.

I was lucky enough on my recent trip to D.C. to get a tour of the place from Frankie Abralind, who publishes biodieselSMARTER in his spare time, but is otherwise gainfully employed as Pogo's biodiesel honcho.

Frankie showed me the dozens of vehicles, tractors, and other heavy equipment that they run on biodiesel. The place sits on over 100 acres, several of which are covered with biodiesel-powered machinery. Frankie makes all of that biodiesel from oil that his department of Pogo Organics- Pogoil- collects in a stepvan. He then delivers it on-site with a little fuel truck that acts as a caddy.

Most of the acreage at Pogo is forest, but scattered throughout the property (and forest itself, in some cases) are numerous projects, like  fungus composting schemes, shiitake logs, a lumber mill, piles and piles of compost, some goats that faint if you scare them (a feature of their breed), and a wondrous barn that has been transformed into a microbrewery for biodiesel.

At the processing plant, Frankie employs techniques that we use at Yokayo, plus a few that we don't (including a resin tower and a greywater pond system), and has done it so successfully that he even has a couple of assistants. In particular, I loved the pond that processes the washwater- it's got living, happy fish and tadpoles in it, and it is surrounded by lush plants. The water enters at a small gravel pit filled with cattails, and proceeds into the small pond. Frankie says they can process 50 gallons of washwater a day this way, and I don't see any reason why it can't be upscaled. Definitely food for thought.

After checking out the biodiesel facility, I got to see something that I've dreamed a great deal about in the past- a real, live Enfield diesel motorcycle. They're famously impossible to import and get running, but I got to see one run, on B100, and it was beautiful. Not a "bike" or a "cruiser". Just a basic motorcycle that happens to be diesel, and that gets something obscene like 150 MPG, very similar in appearance to this one.

So all of that was fun, but the best part was hanging out with Frankie and his wife Jessica afterward. I'm sometimes reminded of how painful and wonderful at the same time it can be having friends in faraway places. If the Abralinds lived around here, Sunny and I would hang out with them regularly, and our lives would be all the merrier for it. They are classic good people. Jessica is a LEED specialist, so they are a certifiably sustainability-oriented household.

Anyway, I was supposed to visit Piedmont Biofuels in North Carolina too, but stupid logistical problems got in the way, so that will have to wait. I can certainly understand the allure of biodiesel tours though. So often, you go because of the scientific research angle, but you leave gleaming because of the people.