Smoking with roots?

[bluewhisper]

OK here's an odd question - has anyone smoked with root wood?

I'm digging a basin for a rain garden, and I'm cutting maple roots. I've been tossing them aside and they're starting to add up to enough to make a fire.

Cutting mattock FTW. Chews through stuff that would stop a shovel.

 

[GaryHibbert]

Can't say I've ever tried roots. I would think there should be a fairly high sugar content in a root--IF tree roots are similar to veggie roots. Personally I would be tempted to try it.

Gary

 

[bluewhisper]

As background, here's the basin project. I bought this house, its basement walls have been braced against bowing from water around the foundation. The downspouts emptied on to splash blocks at the corners of the house.

I need somewhere for the water to go TO so I'm digging this rain garden 28 feet away from the house. The soil is very poor, like digging in roadbed gravel. The "infiltration" (soaking-in) rate is extremely slow. These are supposed to drain down in 24 - 48 hours. I'm still digging to size the basin; an inch of rain will fill it. Two downspouts are feeding it.

It's just outside of the drip zone of a neighbor's maple, and that's why I'm hitting roots. You can see more roots waiting to be cut - I had to quit diigging at nightfall.

Extra points for me, for having a smoker somewhere in the shot (far left).

backgardenshot.jpg

• bluewhisper
• Nov 22, 2015