Fill the smoker to make the best use of your time

I was trimming the neighbor’s cherry tree that was hanging over the yard this fall and I didn’t want to just throw out the branches. So I got to thinking about what I could do with them and I thought smoked salmon. I have never attempted it in my side box smoker even though I always kind of wanted to.

This leads me to another tip. When I do the annual apple tree pruning, I always save a bunch of water shoots to later use in the smoker. It saves on waste and is perfect for all the smoking I have done.

Looking at the calendar, school is ending for the year and the holidays are barreling upon us. I really wanted to get this experiment done. As I was planning last night, I thought ‘I am going to have some extra room, I should smoke something for dinner as well’. So I got a chicken out. I think that will go well with collard greens (still in the garden) and black eyed peas.

Sure, it would be nice to have an electronically controlled smoker, but since I am going to the effort of tending the fire why not fill up the unused space? The salmon will be vacuum sealed for the future and dinner will be delicious tonight.