Caroline Jesper, head of F2F` or “Feces To Fudge” initiative explains that it wasn’t easy getting the town of Biddeford, Maine on board with their business model. “We approached the town about using it’s waste for edible goods, something the FDA frowns upon,” recalls Jesper, “but we took a risky tactic that we think paid off in the long run”. When asked about the tactic in question, she gave us an anecdote that deserves re-telling.
Fudge For Everyone
F2F requested a meeting with over a half-dozen local leaders in charge of zoning, environmental issues and of course, sewer and water. F2F catered the event with a variety of chocolate flavored treats. While these board members were learning about the process of defecanation, they shoveled the treats into their mouths with glee. Only later in the presentation did they learn that their ‘treats’ were treated waste from outhouses at the Fryeburg Fairgrounds last October.
“Only one counsel member vomited, so we think it went over well. As a matter of fact, many were amazed that the treats, described as “the best tasting whoopie pies I’ve ever tasted”, were in fact - well, what they were.How Defecanation Works
Looking eerily similar to an old-time whisky still, the contraption Jesper showed us was a fascinating mix of tubes, filters, funnels and beakers. On one end there was a place for a tube to attach, clearly to pump in mass amounts of feces. With no tube, we saw 2 workers lifting a 50 gallon drum, heaving a slop of thick brown paste into a chamber on the rear of the machine.
“The smellier the feces, the better chocolate you can make. Diarrhea, crass as it sounds, is most desired as it’s pungent odor translates into a stronger chocolate. We don’t separate though, it’s inefficient. We allow stored feces to break down into the same consistency before we introduce it to our defecanation process.” As he states this, he gestures towards the machine to indicate that it’s time to see more.
Poo, Apparently, Is Only One Molecule Off From Cocoa
“You can’t really see what’s going on behind the scenes here, but basically it’s a simple refining process. We extract solid bits that don’t break down, like corn and condoms, right off the bat. The corn goes to the local food pantry, the condoms we throw away - that’s just gross. Next, we heat the ‘soup’ to 440 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 hours to kill as much bacteria as we can. Finally, we use a proprietary process to bind the missing molecule to the chemical composition of the soup. And - out this end, “ gesturing to what appeared to be a long cylinder squirting out a melted, slightly darker ‘soup’, “comes the chocolate extract.“
Helping A Struggling City, One Dump At A Time
“Biddeford has a lot of people, therefore a lot of waste. From Friday night until Sunday morning it’s backed up from all the beer consumed at the local bars, like the 50’s Pub and Champions Sports Bar” stated Donald Lemieux, head of the Water & Sewer Department. “If we can find a way to convert a consumer product, in this case “Budweiser”, into another consumer product, chocolate, and make the town some extra money, it’s a win-win scenario”.
According to Jesper, “Many locally made products use F2F’s processed chocolate”. When asked for specifics, she replied simply - “I’ll never tell”.
