Hey, guys!
Very soon, when the berries are eaten by the local fauna, I will be dropping a large number of young cherry trees. Mostly "choke" cherry. The average diameter will go fron 2 to six inches. I will drop them with the leaves still green and wait till the leaves have dried and fallen off and thus having taken a whole bunch of sap with them.
I will then cut them all into disks and just pile them up under a rough shelter which I will erect. As soon as the checking appears I have a wickedly large source for cherry smoking wood. And no soaking necessary.
The reason I have to drop them is due to their incursion on my power line. I have 243 feet from the road to my power pole by the cabin. And the cherry tees are taking over the "run" from the road. There are a few other species like yellow birch and maple. The smaller maple will also be put in the smoker pile and the yellow birch will be put in the "keep warm" pile for the wood stove.
Because of construction here and time constraints I will not be able to use much right away but I will not have to pay for smoking wood next year! Unless I want a bit of mesquite or hickory which are readily available and reasonably priced.
So, good luck with the apple wood, cut it into disks and have fun with it! BTW, well checked disks can be whacked with a hammer to create smaller wedge shaped pieces allowing more wood to be put in the smoke tray.
Cheers!