Citrus wood

[bigsteve]

I have Grapefruit, Orange and Tangelo trees that I need to trim/prune. How long does it take for the cut wood to season enough to smoke with? If left in the sun to dry out, do I have to run out there and cover it up every time it rains? I also have a Kumquat tree. Anyone ever hear of using that wood?

Which meat seems to do best with citrus woods?

 

[bigsteve]

Oh, and what about the bark?

 

[phreak]

I use a fair amount of citrus wood. It's good for everything, it's quite mellow so a lot of people will add a more robust smoking wood, but I like just a kiss of smoke flavor so often just use the citrus. I think the consensus on aging/drying wood is about 6 months- 1 year. If you cut the wood into 3-4" slabs and split them 6 months should be plenty. If you can find a place that gets good sun and blocks most of the rain it will dry rather quickly in SW FL. As for the bark, I've found when citrus dries the bark pretty much falls off. I will pull whatever comes off easily by hand and leave whatever is left and have always like the results.

 

[1894]

I know that a chevy blazer will be leaving st Pete beach in less than a week and heading for NY . Just in case you wanted to compare seasoning times between Fla and NY

 

[phreak]

If you have room I have some extra you can have. I'm even going to be on St Pete beach this weekend with logs in tow(except these logs are 9' surfboards) ,but if you want some I can drop some off to you.

 

[bman62526]

From what I've read...about 9 months is good, you could maybe get away with 6 depending on the size of the splits and how it is stored. However, don't let it get rained on as that will for sure set you back a few months.