Dangers of cooking with fruit wood?

I was speaking with a farmer who comes to our valley in the fall and sells various fruits and veggies that he grows on his farm, he sells mostly apples and pears. He mentioned to me that I have to be careful about using fruit wood to cook with because of pesticides that get into the wood. He knows some people who got real sick from cooking over apple. I wouldnt know so I thought I would ask you guys what you think. I have some apple from a yard tree in town that Ive been drying out a bit so I can cook over it. Its just trimmings left over from a local business that I visit. They were going to chuck it so I threw it in the back of my truck this spring. What do you guys think? Any truth to this claim? Thanks

 

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people get real sick from going to the city

 

Yes they do.

 

Its just something Ive never heard of before and it didnt even occur to me that this could be a threat. The curiosity has gotten the better of me so I thought I would reach out.

 

I'm going to say it's possible. There's a lot of variables involved but I think it's definitely possible. Probable? Not really. But possible.

 

Firewood Bandit Do you have any ideas about this. Iirc you said you knew some stuff about chemical application.

 

I'll chime in here... I started heating with wood close to 10 years ago because friend of mine told me how he pays $1 for a permit to cut all he wants. The place that did this was Knouse Foods. I live in what used to be called the apple capitol of the world (when I was growing up), Adams county Pa, also home to Musslemans. I now have a friend who's family owns Fetters Orchards. He regularly lets me cut all I want for free. Last fall/winter, my son and I stopped @ 54 trees. When the orchard gets too old, they push the trees over and start fresh. (I also got my BIL and a friend all they wanted). mike bayerl got a load too


So in these 10 years, I've used the apple.... quite a lot, to smoke and cook meats. Never have I noticed any sickness or health related issues from it.


Here's the 1st haul... ended up being 16 cord (for $1).

And for reference, here's my son now

 

I also reached out to my local favorite BBQ joint this summer. He said if he hadn't just bought a load, he would have from me. My biggest concern was that I didn't use veg oil in my saw to cut, he never asked...

 

You live in Nirvana for firewood and smoker wood. I'm happy to help you out any time my friend.

 

16 cords for a dollar?!

That's about a 5 year plan for me for a buck. I'll take 2.

 

As for burning orchard wood; If eating food cooked over it is potentially unhealthy then what about eating the fruit that grew on it?

 

Thats a good point Paul bunion, it caught me by surprise and so far the good folks here have helped me out tremendously. I was only thinking that maybe others new something that maybe I didnt. Glad to have the advice of the collective.

 

Thanks for spending the time to upload the pictures and to add your insight. Greatly appreciated!

 

I was thinking about Firewood Bandit when I was putting this together so thanks for mentioning him. He knows quite a bit about fruit trees so Im sure he will chime in and tell me his opinion.

 

I think the difference here is a "contact" vs. a "systemic" pesticide. Systemic pesticides can get incorporated into the body of the plant or fruit and have a long residual effect vs. contact pesticides do not get incorporated into the plant, work on contact of the outside of the plant and can be washed off. I would guess most produce is treated with contact pesticides as the pests that affect the plant or fruit attack it from the outside. So I think the amount of pesticide incorporated into the wood of the fruit tree would be very low. I'm pulling a lot of this from the inner crevices of my brain from my college days which were a long time, so if you are really interested or concerned...

 

Well it shows what you guys know if you want my opinion.

If I were to go out on a limb, I would guess that the farmer in question was a long haired granola muncher, smelled like pot and preaches the benefits of ugly organic food that cost 3x as much.

Back to reality. All chemical are labeled with two important numbers, the PHI and REI. That is post harvest interval which is the # of days that needs to pass before the produce can be legally harvested and consumed. The second, REI is the re entry interval which is the amount of time that must pass before any one from the public or other workers can enter the area treated area. This is quite short, generally until dry or sunset the following day.

I am not going to say that it would be impossible to measure the amount of chemical in the wood but believe it would be insignificant. Modern science can measure concentrations in the PPM or PPB. (parts per million or parts per billion). Heck I have seen news articles saying the sky is falling from someone throwing prescription drugs down the toilet and it being later measured in waste water plant emissions. It may be there but doesn't make it significant.

I use apple wood out of my orchard for smoking. The only problem with apple is it makes poultry a darker color than using something like hickory but it tastes a lot better as hickory smoke can be over powering.

The apples you buy in the grocery store didn't get that way by accident.

Here are a few of mine.









Old trees I cut down because the fruit wasn't good enough