Is cherry wood safe

[wnc goater]

Probably what the confusion is,  wild cherry leaves, when wilted, produce cyanide.  It has been know to kill goats or other animals that eat enough of the leaves, which by the way, the cyanide produces a sweet taste that is attractive to goats. 

I cannot imagine the wood itself has any toxins in it.  I know some woods like black walnut and mahogany can produce some toxins, and rhododendron smoke can be poisonous and as I understand it, if you cook over rhododendron wood (or mountain laurel) you'll get some bad "results" lol .  FWIW, rhododendron leaves will also poison livestock if enough are ingested.

 

[nvrnvrlnd]

Alright, for all you non-chemists out there, it's not arsenic, it's cyanide and it's only in the pits and leaves. The wood is clean, don't worry about it or peach or apricot, which have the same. Nectarine, plum, basically anything that has a pit in the fruit, actually almond, and it's a cyanide derivative that gives it its flavor, but you can't eat enough almonds, you can eat too much of the pits of some varieties of peaches, so using peach pits for smoke might not be a good idea. Better living through chemistry.

 

[joe black]

I notice that the bad bad cherry disposal offers that you have had are from Florida and Iowa. I just thought that it was my duty to let you know that I am in SC and your freight charges from Maryland would be much less if you used our services here in SC. If you choose to keep your bad bad cherry, you need to know that the next ham that you smoke with it will have a definite pork flavor. Good luck and good smokin.

 

[nvrnvrlnd]

Now I'm in Texas, so I'd be closer and I think it might mix well with my Pecan. I could probably dispose of quite a bit in a controlled burn. I'd be more than willing to trade a truckload of mesquite for a load of cherry any day. I think mesquite smoke smells like diesel fuel. Most people down here won't use it unless that's all there is. Good fruitwood is hard to find and citrus trees are terrible. Actually, I need to get back up to East Texas where I have an apple tree to harvest. Apple is by far the best smoking wood ever. That tree is huge, half dead with fire blight and the owner wants it gone. Even if I split it with my partner, there's enough wood to last me for the rest of my life. We're talking a tree that's 2 ft.in diameter, 30 ft. tall with a canopy that's over 50'.  That's a lot of smoking wood. 

 

[joe black]

Nvr,

I bet that was also a lot of apples. The question that I have, what part of Texas is closer to Maryland than SC?

 

[nvrnvrlnd]

I misread after too much bourbon.  I thought the cherry was coming out of Iowa. I've found in the past that sweet cherry is good, wild cherry is better, but sour cherry, like Montmorency, can be a bit on the acrid side. One year I was making chipotles with various woods, apple, peach, apricot and sour cherry.  I sold a lot of them at the farmers' market and had quite a few people who bought a small bag of each and the universal opinion later was that apple was the best and cherry was the worst, but they all beat the Mexican oak smoked ones. Peach and apricot were virtually indistinguishable. My mother's pear tree bit the dust the next year and it was very similar to apple. 

 

[notquitevegan]

What is the going rate for cherry wood? Do you know where you can order it without getting killed on shipping? Not just wood chips though.

 

[mdgirlinfl]

What is the going rate for cherry wood? Do you know where you can order it without getting killed on shipping? Not just wood chips though.

I just saw bagged cherry chips at the local publix. I guess I should have grabbed a bag to test.


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[mdgirlinfl]

I have a cousin that is from Maryland and is a long haul trucker. If you need a reliable transport to move that cherry wood to a safe distance, I can have him pick it up next time he comes through on his way back down to Florida. We have a proper disposal site very nearby. [emoji]128526[/emoji]


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[koldsmoker]

you alive, speaks for itself. smoke on brother.