Help me choose between a bunch of bad options

[kuroki]

Well I am finally close enough to running my reverse flow that I am starting to look for wood.
Unfortunately where I am, there are not many options.
I can buy birch firewood for $2-300 a cord which I know will work fine, provided the bark is stripped.
As far as trees I have access to cut, choices are a bit more limited. 99% of the trees around here are either Cottonwood/Black Poplar or White Poplar. Acute Willow and Silver Willow are reasonably common, and I have a few Manitoba Maple trees that could be cut down.

None of the common choices are available at any price in split firewood form.

Any thoughts on the suitability of these? I am mostly wanting it for warm and hot smoking sausages. Some BBQ will be done though I'm sure. And this summers project is a traditional cold smokehouse.
I know a few guys around here who used to smoke hams and bacon with Birch and Willow, but haven't talked to anyone who's used the others first hand.
Any thoughts would be appreciated

 

[sacedbysapp]

No oak?

 

[kuroki]

No oak?

None at all, I haven't even seen a single oak tree since I moved here a few years ago. No Hickory, ash, fruit wood, beech, sugar maple, walnut, or nut woods either

 

[Fueling Around]

Road trip?
Cottonwood, aspen, and boxelder (Manitoba maple) are fast burning and low flavor woods.
Never tried willow

 

[kuroki]

I'm going to keep searching around at least. Saskatoon berry and hazelnut do grow here, it's just not easy to find trees available to cut.

Other than lack of flavor and frequent stoking, would there be any reason the boxelder and Cottonwood couldn't be used? I am thinking more so if I do find something good, I could stretch it out some burning one of those as filler

 

[smokerjim]

I'd move

 

[TNJAKE]

I did a search of your area and oak/maple are available but sell out very quickly. Check all the arborists in your area.

 

[kuroki]

I did a search of your area and oak/maple are available but sell out very quickly. Check all the arborists in your area.

Unfortunately I'm nowhere near the cities, would be a 6-8 hour round trip and $300 worth of fuel to bring back a truckload of wood...
Between that and having more trees than I could ever want available to cut, I was rather hoping one of these would at least be usable even if it's not ideal

 

[kuroki]

Also worth remembering that every listing you saw for maple is Manitoba maple, aka boxelder.
I just took a look and couldn't see a single listing for oak in the whole province on our version of Craigslist

 

[Fueling Around]

...
Other than lack of flavor and frequent stoking, would there be any reason the boxelder and Cottonwood couldn't be used? I am thinking more so if I do find something good, I could stretch it out some burning one of those as filler

Nope.
Boxelder would be my first choice of your listings.

 

[kuroki]

Nope.
Boxelder would be my first choice of your listings.

Excellent, that's what I wanted to hear. I've got probably 20 of them that can come down along the north field.... And I'm sure I'll be able to find plenty more.
I'll save all the Cottonwood for my firepit. The willow I may try yet once I build a smokehouse. If only because a good friend of mine who was a butcher for years smoked all his hams and bacon with it and seemed to like the results

 

[chp]

I know you probably already checked into this, but could you supplement your wood with some lump charcoal? I seem to find 50 lbs bags of mesquite etc at our local Sam’s Club during grilling season. Prices get good when the season is over.

 

[kuroki]

I certainly can if it comes to that.

It looks like I'm just going to have to do a couple test burns with the woods available and see how it works. The main thing I wanted to make sure is there wasn't a reason not to use them beyond "they aren't very good"