In article , MonopTN wrote:
I get mine from a hardwood sawmill. I buy a bundle of slabs for $25-30.
The oak is 25, hickory or maple is usually 30. I can get 2-3
bundles on a flat bed truck, but even one bundle would not fit on a
regular bed truck!

How big is a bundle exactly and what does it consist of? Are these
boards or some unusable end pieces or ??

Sounds like you're getting a bunch of scrap for cheap (which is fine
for this purpose!)

Rick F. wrote:
In article , MonopTN wrote:
I get mine from a hardwood sawmill. I buy a bundle of slabs for $25-30.
The oak is 25, hickory or maple is usually 30. I can get 2-3
bundles on a flat bed truck, but even one bundle would not fit on a
regular bed truck!

How big is a bundle exactly and what does it consist of? Are these
boards or some unusable end pieces or ??

Sounds like you're getting a bunch of scrap for cheap (which is fine
for this purpose!)


A logging operations takes a straight log and cuts a core out of the
middle to make furniture, hardwood flooring, etc. The core that they get
is quite large, I would guess 12" x 12". I buy what's left. These
scrap "slabs" consist of planks that are flat on once side, and rounded
on the bark side. I'll build a roaring fire with these outside the pit,
and shovel hardwood coals into the pit from the fire. I do about 3
cookings from one bundle. A bundle will be loaded onto your truck with
a forklift.

If you were just going to use this for smoke, and not the fuel, you
could go to a lumber mill and get one or 2 slabs for free, and it would
last you a long time. The slabs are about 8 feet long and range from 2
inches in width to 2 feet, most being about 1 foot across. Some
probably weigh 60 pounds each. I posted a photo at
http://webpages.charter.net/epeay/slabs.jpg. and the finished product at
http://webpages.charter.net/epeay/pig.jpg

See if there are any hardwood sawmills in your area. The slabs they
can't sell the burn on site usually. In middle Tennessee, there are
many of sawmills to choose from.

MonopTN

--
Greetings from the Hog and Hominy State!

On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 00:31:04 GMT, "Rick F." wrote:

Yup.. My mistake- - first time I ever smoked anything was with Mesquite.. That
was the biggest mistake I ever made.. I happened to pick the worst (strongest)
flavored wood for smoking from the get-go and my wife (and kids) didn't like
the results either (nor did I)

I tend to like strong flavors, so mesquite's fine with me. At least
for ribs or BB. Haven't done a brisket, so can't speak to that.
Chicken's a pretty mild flavor, so a milder smoke works better there.

-denny-
--

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority.
The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.

EMOVETHIS wrote:
On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 19:29:01 GMT, "Rick F." wrote:

Most stores out here where I am (Los Angeles area) only carry the main
sellers such as Jack Daniels chips et-al..

Raises a question--and if I get no answer in this thread, I may make
it a subject line Q: fruit and nut woods are known to be good for
smoking--but does that include *citrus*?
(if it does, I'd think you SoCal and Fla types would have little
trouble getting such)

Citrus makes wonderful smoke. I mainly use Kaffir lime, also some orange
and lemon. I use it on everything. Also grape, plum and avocado. I must
remember to try some chile trimmings.

--
Nick. Support severely wounded and disabled Veterans and their families!

Thank a Veteran and Support Our Troops. You are not forgotten. Thanks ! ! !
~Semper Fi~

In article , MonopTN wrote:

See if there are any hardwood sawmills in your area. The slabs they
can't sell the burn on site usually. In middle Tennessee, there are
many of sawmills to choose from.

Sawmills in LA.. Haa..hh Sorry.. Now, If you're looking for refineries,
them we gots! However, there are NO trees nearby (LA is basically a desert
of sorts) so there's really no call for any sort of sawmills.. Now, they
do have them in Oregon where my parents live, but I'm not sure about
driving that far with a fully loaded truck full on one kind of wood..

In article , wrote:
EMOVETHIS wrote:
On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 19:29:01 GMT, "Rick F." wrote:

Most stores out here where I am (Los Angeles area) only carry the main
sellers such as Jack Daniels chips et-al..

Raises a question--and if I get no answer in this thread, I may make
it a subject line Q: fruit and nut woods are known to be good for
smoking--but does that include *citrus*?
(if it does, I'd think you SoCal and Fla types would have little
trouble getting such)

Citrus makes wonderful smoke. I mainly use Kaffir lime, also some orange
and lemon. I use it on everything. Also grape, plum and avocado. I must
remember to try some chile trimmings.

Well.. I've received two hits so far from my local Craigslist ad I placed
about 6-7 hours ago.. One guy was wondering what the heck I was going to do
with the wood, and the second guy has a dead nectarine tree and also a dead
grape vine.. I asked him some questions about pesticide use and what they died
from.. Are either of these things I should be overly cautious about?

If the trees were treated with pesticides within the last N months, should I
skip it to ensure I don't get a side of smoked pesticides? Also, if a tree
is infested (internally) with bugs, I think I'll pass as well.. Comments?

"Rick F." wrote:
wrote:
EMOVETHIS wrote:
On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 19:29:01 GMT, "Rick F." wrote:

Most stores out here where I am (Los Angeles area) only carry the
main sellers such as Jack Daniels chips et-al..

Raises a question--and if I get no answer in this thread, I may make
it a subject line Q: fruit and nut woods are known to be good for
smoking--but does that include *citrus*?
(if it does, I'd think you SoCal and Fla types would have little
trouble getting such)

Citrus makes wonderful smoke. I mainly use Kaffir lime, also some
orange and lemon. I use it on everything. Also grape, plum and avocado.
I must remember to try some chile trimmings.

Well.. I've received two hits so far from my local Craigslist ad I placed
about 6-7 hours ago.. One guy was wondering what the heck I was going to
do with the wood, and the second guy has a dead nectarine tree and also a
dead grape vine.. I asked him some questions about pesticide use and what
they died from.. Are either of these things I should be overly cautious
about?

If the trees were treated with pesticides within the last N months,
should I skip it to ensure I don't get a side of smoked pesticides?
Also, if a tree is infested (internally) with bugs, I think I'll pass as
well.. Comments?

We don't use pesticides, so I (personally) would pass on them, as I would
on bugs in the wood. The only way I've ever heard of grape vines dying is
from lack of water. Even Japanese beetles (back in the 40's and 50's)
didn't kill the vine.

--
Nick. Support severely wounded and disabled Veterans and their families!

Thank a Veteran and Support Our Troops. You are not forgotten. Thanks ! ! !
~Semper Fi~

In article , wrote:

Well.. I've received two hits so far from my local Craigslist ad I placed
about 6-7 hours ago.. One guy was wondering what the heck I was going to
do with the wood, and the second guy has a dead nectarine tree and also a
dead grape vine.. I asked him some questions about pesticide use and what
they died from.. Are either of these things I should be overly cautious
about?

If the trees were treated with pesticides within the last N months,
should I skip it to ensure I don't get a side of smoked pesticides?
Also, if a tree is infested (internally) with bugs, I think I'll pass as
well.. Comments?

We don't use pesticides, so I (personally) would pass on them, as I would
on bugs in the wood. The only way I've ever heard of grape vines dying is
from lack of water. Even Japanese beetles (back in the 40's and 50's)
didn't kill the vine.

Well.. I got a reply from the tree owner and she said that the trees have
never had pesticide applied (at least for the past bunch of years) and that
their grape vine had become non-productive so they let it die (no water). The
Nectarine tree is claimed to be somewhere between 15-20' tall.. Since this
thing is going to have a bunch of smaller branches (likely I'd guess), should
I try to keep those as something akin to wood "chips" for smoking purposes or
just go for the bigger stuff and skip the smaller material? Just trying to
figure out my gameplan..

Thanks!

On 25-Sep-2006, Denny Wheeler wrote:

On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 19:29:01 GMT, "Rick F." wrote:

Most stores out here where I am (Los Angeles area) only carry the main
sellers
such as Jack Daniels chips et-al..

Raises a question--and if I get no answer in this thread, I may make
it a subject line Q: fruit and nut woods are known to be good for
smoking--but does that include *citrus*?
(if it does, I'd think you SoCal and Fla types would have little
trouble getting such)

-denny-

I use orange quite often. It has a nice light flavor.

--
Brick(also use oak from local tree service)

On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 16:37:15 GMT, "Rick F." wrote:

Just a quick question.. Where do you all get your wood for doing your low-n-slow
smoking of pork, beef,etc? Is it any of the following or something else :


Some on CBBQA use http://www.lazzari.com/

It looks expensive, so I've never tried it. I live in the San Diego
area and have had some luck acquiring oak from Palomar Mtn. I have 12
cords of black oak waiting to be split now. We use wood for heating
in winter, so it's not all bbq related :-)

There are also lots of old grapefruit groves here, so citrus is not
hard to come by. I still have quite a few trees left on my property.

According to Dave Klose http:/www.bbqpits.com (where I got my
smoker), it's best to use freshly split wood that's been dried for at
least 5 months and less than 2 years.

I have the backyard chef.

Sooo, I bought a wonderful splitter last year.
http://www.splitez.com/log_splitter_wood_splitters.html

I have the 34 ton model. It's amazing how well this thing works. It
goes through huge pieces of oak like it's not there.

Regards,
Larry

In article , Steve Wertz wrote:

Some on CBBQA use http://www.lazzari.com/

This is the name I was trying to remember. Supposedly available
through several restaurant supply houses (Cash & Carry) in
California and elsewhere.

Ahh.. Lazzari.. I've never tried theirs.. They carry it at OSH
(but only the Mesquite variety and it's regular lump -- already
charred black), but I recently saw someone selling their Hickory
variety (also charred lump) -- I've never seen any fruit woods
by them sold at any stores I've been to.. I'll keep an eye out.

Since my last update, a friend down in San Diego has an old
Apricot tree that was chopped down recently (a few months ago)
and he fessed up that he was about to take the larger pieces to
the dump this weekend -- now they're slated to be mine.. (8-

He's also got some older Oak from a tree that was chopped down
in 2000 (6 year old -- already seasoned I guess).. This is
actually pretty easy to find if you ask around a bit.. I'm
pretty amused by this

On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:23:20 GMT, "Rick F." wrote:

In article , Steve Wertz wrote:


Since my last update, a friend down in San Diego has an old
Apricot tree that was chopped down recently (a few months ago)
and he fessed up that he was about to take the larger pieces to
the dump this weekend -- now they're slated to be mine.. (8-

He's also got some older Oak from a tree that was chopped down
in 2000 (6 year old -- already seasoned I guess).. This is
actually pretty easy to find if you ask around a bit.. I'm
pretty amused by this


If you need some split, I might be convinced to let you use the
splitter for a bottle or two of cabernet . . . :-)

Last year I found a guy on Palomar who had cut down some oak trees and
was wanting to get rid of it. I bought 13 cords for $30 a cord. Not
bad. The hard part was loading it and hauling it down the hill. It
took a few trips. When you consider there are people trying to sell
oak in La Jolla for over $500 a cord, I felt lucky.

When I run out, I have a continuous source or red oak at $100 a pickup
load.

I noticed that aged wood seems to impart less smoke taste to the meat.
It seems to burn cleaner, so you get heat with less smoke.
Before this load of wood, I found some really nice red oak that was
recently cut and had it split in smaller pieces for the smoker. This
was really pretty wood that could have been made into furniture. That
turned out some really great bbq. As the wood aged, it seemed to not
give the flavor. (I still have a couple of rounds.)

I use lump to start the oak and then cook entirely with wood.

It's ok. I have a chainsaw and a splitter and don't mind trying to
find the perfect wood. I can buy large rounds and split it as I need
it. The older stuff I use for the fireplace.

Btw, if you look in the classifieds in the local newspaper, you'll
very often find people selling citrus and oak firewood. There's none
now, but very soon you should see some. This is a rural part of north
county San Diego and people use wood for heat. Propane is expensive.
http://www.valleycenter.com/classified_ads.htm . We're right next to
Palomar Mtn, plus there are many older groves here. Property is
beginning to be worth more to developers than it is as farm land. I
cut down over 400 grapefruit trees when I moved here 15 years ago. If
you can't water them properly, they just become a fire hazard.

Regards,
Larry

On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:23:20 GMT, "Rick F." wrote:

In article , Steve Wertz wrote:


I just did a search for San Diego Craigslist. There's tons of it. Some
free.

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/searc...query=firewood

In article , ldg wrote:
On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:23:20 GMT, "Rick F." wrote:

If you need some split, I might be convinced to let you use the
splitter for a bottle or two of cabernet . . . :-)

Thanks for the offer.. I'll keep that in mind..

I noticed that aged wood seems to impart less smoke taste to the meat.
It seems to burn cleaner, so you get heat with less smoke.

I'm aware of that.. I'm not anticipating that the 6yo Oak will be
horribly flavorful for smoking, but heck -- it's free!

I use lump to start the oak and then cook entirely with wood.

I personally can't justify buying wood for that purpose (for the
most part). However, when we were recently in Colorado at a family
owned cabin (at the end of August) and it was getting a bit nippy
in the evenings (and mornings), we were using a LOT of pine & Aspen
that had been cut right on the property.. I love the Aspen trees
and would be interested in knowing if you could smoke them too (I
gather they're a cousin to the Poplar tree which I've read that
some people use for smoking)..

Btw, if you look in the classifieds in the local newspaper, you'll
very often find people selling citrus and oak firewood. There's none
now, but very soon you should see some. This is a rural part of north
county San Diego and people use wood for heat. Propane is expensive.
http://www.valleycenter.com/classified_ads.htm . We're right next to
Palomar Mtn, plus there are many older groves here. Property is
beginning to be worth more to developers than it is as farm land. I
cut down over 400 grapefruit trees when I moved here 15 years ago. If
you can't water them properly, they just become a fire hazard.

A friend of mine lives in Chula Vista and has been looking into buying
an Avocado grove for a while and now the prices are dropping pretty well
(groves in the 300k range).. Anyway, I guess you could easily get a good
source of avocado wood from one of those groves (assuming it was organically
raised). Up in the Fillmore (CA) area, there are a ton of citrus growers
as well as Avocado groves (Avocado's are being planted all the time since
they've got a glut of citrus and the prices are very cheap for what the
farmers can get).. That might also be a good source for Orange,Lemon,
Grapefruit and Avocado (eventually -- they're too small now)...

In article , ldg wrote:
On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:23:20 GMT, "Rick F." wrote:

In article , Steve Wertz wrote:


I just did a search for San Diego Craigslist. There's tons of it. Some
free.

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/searc...query=firewood

The only problem with some of this is whether you can get good info on
whether or not the tree trimmings have pesticide on them.. While they
are fine for fireplace use, I'd be tempted to shy away from them for
BBQ use without more clarification on a few items..