Favorite campfire wood?

[Steve NW WI]

Although my fire pit is still covered in that dang white stuff, I suspect there are those on here that have shut down the wood stove and are enjoying a cold one around the campfire already, so I figure it's as good a time as any to discuss this topic.

What's your favorite wood to burn for campfires and why?

Mine's box elder. Incredibly plentiful here, burns fairly hot for those cool nights, doesn't smoke much if the bark is off and it's dry, and speaking of bark, it's probably second only to paper birch in the flammability of it's bark. Built in lighter fluid.

Every now and then some pine is nice for the snap crackle pop ambience, but I don't have a dependable supply of it.

Your turn...

 

[chucker]

no fire here yet either? as soon as can be it will be willow, spruce and your beloved box elder... sipping on a warm winsor/coke!! oh yes gotta get ride of it somewhere?? lol

 

[Sagetown]

Hi there Steve in Wisconsin:
i bet it is cold up there. And you're right about down here in SE Oklahoma, we've had a few good days lately that my wife, son and I have spent around the Camp Fire already.

We love the smell of Hickory in the air. It's pleasant aroma spreads for quite a distance, and makes one say ~ "Mmmm that smells good". I spent last summer and fall splitting big hickory logs into tiny 14" x 3" sticks. Great for cooking on. It burns hot, but since we don't have that much on the place, for just sitting around the fire I have plenty of Red Oak. It has the best aroma of the Oaks.

 

[mizzou]

Anything that messes up the stack and any junky stuff that cull from my property, such as willow, cottonwood and elm. Unless it is red elm.

 

[Beefie]

Any odd chunck of wood that can't fit into the wood burner goes into the campfire pile. also Any tree trimming that isn't big enouh for firewood goes there to. Elm never goes in the fire pit that is the good stuff that goes in the wood burner.

Beefie

 

[bowtechmadman]

Sassafras...plenty of snap, crackle and pop, many colors of flames, very plentiful and if you dig up the roots you can make some darn good tea.

 

[MN Ripper]

All the unstack-able odds & ends firewood pieces. You know the paper thin hollow ones, twisted broken knotty ones,soft and punky cores, and don't forget the cut cookies from tuning the saws.

 

[Mntn Man]

Interesting that you can burn box elder. I tried burning some in my wood furnace this year that was split and stacked for 2 years and yuck! Smoky, ashy and low heat. Maybe next year it will be better, lol.

My favorite for camp wood, hands down, is cottonwood. Once the bark is gone, it is clean, light, and gives good flame. Also, it is plentiful and easy to split. I have much better wood for winter heat, so I cut some of this just for summer. I also will burn the odds and ends of the winter supply wood. I have some bur oak limbs that are way past their prime that will probably find their way into some campfires this year as I am sure to have many.

One thing that we have found to be delicious is we get a cottonwood fire burned down to coals then put on some chicken. We then round up some cottonwood twigs that are laying everywhere and lay them over the coals to smoke. It is incredibly good!

 

[TreePointer]

We often cook on our campfires, so at least part of the mix has to be something that makes good coals. Around here, that often means cherry or elm.

 

[flewism]

Anything that doesn't get burned in the stove. Box elder, pine, soft maple, popular and lots of pallets.
Only cooking done is marshmellows, popcorn, hobo pies, and bratwurst.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Interesting that you can burn box elder. I tried burning some in my wood furnace this year that was split and stacked for 2 years and yuck! Smoky, ashy and low heat. Maybe next year it will be better, lol.

BE is like most other softer woods, off the ground is very important, also covering helps. It will suck a lot of moisture out of the ground or from rainfall. It seasons fast if split and stacked out in the open. I cover mine on top just so I always have some nice dry stuff when it's fire time.

The cooking ideas in this post have me ready to shovel some snow and get going right now. Have some apple and cherry in the machine shed just begging to cook something!

 

[cat-face timber]

Anything that doesn't get burned in the stove. Box elder, pine, soft maple, popular and lots of pallets.
Only cooking done is marshmellows, popcorn, hobo pies, and bratwurst.

What is a "hobo Pie", it sounds good

How do you make it?

 

[cat-face timber]

I love having a fire outside, we sit around it and BS for hours.
I burn whatever I can find. Mostly Pinyon and Cedar.

To cook outside, I use Juniper, steaks, Cabbage, Cobb Corn.

mmmm

 

[indiansprings]

All our junk left over, mainly red oak and hickory, I try to save a little wild cherry back. All hold good coals.
I about **** in Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park a bindle of pine about as big around as a basketball 20.00 took 2 bundles for the kids to roast a hot dog, it burned as fast as paper, no coals. What a racket.

 

[flewism]

What is a "hobo Pie", it sounds good

How do you make it?

Here is a picture of the pie maker found on a Goggle search
Round Cast Iron Pie Iron - Pie Iron USA pie irons, pudgy, hobo, and roasting camping campfire forks for marshmallows or hot dogs are an easy way to cook or grill over a campfire or open outdoor fire or firepit
The basic recipe for fruit pies is canned fruit pie filling and 2 slices of bread and a touch on vegetable oil.
Coat both pans with a light layer of oil lay a piece of bread, add a heaping table spoon of pie filling, add the second piece of bread on top. Then close the pie maker squish it tightly trim off the excess bread and stick it on the coals, flip once. In a few minute you will have a piping hot toasted fruit pie.
There is hundreds a recipes for breakfast sandwiches and such.
Cast iron pie makers are way better than the aluminum ones in my opinion.
sorry to derail this thread ever so slightly.

 

[spike60]

The campfire is where I get rid of a lot of the pallets and tractor crates. Cut 'em down to fit in the firepit and there's plenty of snap, crackle, pop. Also burn cookies from the test log and all of the limbs and such that fall in the woods.

 

[goof008]

I use the low grade trees I don't put thru my wood burner unless I have to.

Cottonwood, poplar...and some soft maple because the property has a ton of it....but from the sounds of it, the box elders around might be cut up for the hunting camp camp fires!

Black Walnut is NOT a good campfire wood...acrid smoke and tons of popping/embers! Kinda like Willow.

 

[purdyite]

Sagetown, I'm with ya on the red oak--a group of us fish at Blue River, and the highlight has become the dutch oven meals. Besides the cooking coals (although I see you use charcoal briquettes), you need a good, long-burning set of logs to sit back and be hypnotized by the flames, watching the colors deep in the fire bed, listening to the low crackling...it needs to last a good while. Wouldn't give two cents for elm or willow.

 

[Sagetown]

Sagetown, I'm with ya on the red oak--a group of us fish at Blue River, and the highlight has become the dutch oven meals. Besides the cooking coals (although I see you use charcoal briquettes), you need a good, long-burning set of logs to sit back and be hypnotized by the flames, watching the colors deep in the fire bed, listening to the low crackling...it needs to last a good while. Wouldn't give two cents for elm or willow.

My wife kept us going back so much last fall that I was forced to build this 10 foot table, as the truck tailgate couldn't handle all her stuff.:msp_biggrin:

 

[rmount]

Bits and pieces: anything from lumber cutoffs to splits that were cut too long for the woodstove, gnarly bits that I can't be bothered splitting, limbs that are too thin to cut for the stove just get pushed in slowly (sometimes start out 8 foot long or more), punky stuff that needs to dry around the fire edge before it burns, pine cones, sometimes at this time of year it is using up good firewood because I want to empty the wood shed for the summer. It doesn't seem to matter what I burn or what the weather is, you get a bunch of family and friends around with a few beers and some hotdogs and a good time is always had.