You lost me here. Which location is "the plant where they make pellets?" AFAIK, the one in Kentucky that makes these only produces one kind, which are dual purpose. They make neither BBQ only nor heating only pellets. Some plants, like Bear Mountain do make both though.
I also disagree with your statement about there being no difference. Some heating pellets, like Bear Mountain's contain non-cooking woods, like Douglas Fir. Things you don't want to cook with. It is also possible for these heating pellets to contain chemicals that help the pellets burn or bind, which aren't food safe. I would never use a heating pellet to cook with unless I knew for a fact that it contained no such wood or chemicals. I spoke to the owner of the company that makes Country Boy pellets who told me that they are natural oak only - no other woods or chemicals. He also uses them to cook on his Traeger.
I will try to check with a farm supplier as you suggest, but when I spoke to the owner of this plant, he told me that there was no retailer in the STL area. As I already said, I would not use any old pellet unless I knew it had no chemicals. The only cooking pellets I have found locally so far are Traeger's.
As for only wanting country boy pellets, I don't. I would like to get some other pellets, and probably will, but these pellets are by far the cheapest I have found. Yeah I have to buy a pallet, but at $0.20/lb, no one else even comes close. The local Traeger supplier wants about $1/lb plus tax. I can get oak pellets from other manufacturors, but for much more money. So far, I've found oak pellets available in bulk ranging between $0.43-$0.90/lb (all prices after shipping). Mixed wood pellets are the same price, but solid non-oak woods start at that $0.90 level. I do want non-oak pellets, but I like oak. I've cooked on it a lot, and especially for this price, I wanna get a pallet of these. Anyway you look at it, these country boy pellets are cheap!
dmp
