can I smoke with logs that had mushrooms?

I found a neighbor that took down a cherry tree over a year ago. It's cut into log lengths, easy splitting with a log splitter. The logs that were in contact with the ground had some white mushrooms growing out of the sides. They weren't soft mushrooms, quite woody and I had to break them off. I know that means the wood is full of mushroom spores, but I'm wondering if I dry it real good this summer if I can use it in a stick burner.

I asked here because you guys know everything!

seattlepitboss

I actually only have enough logs for a few cooks. There are more where these came from, but the ground is soft and they won't let me drive my car down next to the pile of cut logs. This means I have to carry one log at a time up a hill. Wouldn't have been a problem 50 years ago, but now it's different.

Anyway, today I took my precious little stash of cherry logs and pressure washed them. Off came all the fungus, moss and mud. I'm borrowing a log splitter and PDQ I'm going to have a nice little stash of cherry splits. Here's the washed logs standing up to dry in the sun:

seattlepitboss

cayenne said:

However, if the briskets your smoking start humming....and the sausages start telling you they are ready to be flipped in strange cartoon voice, you might have some special mushrooms there on the logs....

Enjoy.

Click to expand...

And the white knight is talking backwards
And the red queen's off her head

OK, enough magic mushroom jokes.

BTW there is a town in Southern Mexico named San Juan del Pacifico. It is known for magic mushrooms. We drove from the coast up to Oaxaca and stopped for the night there. My wife and I strolled downtown just to stretch our legs and a guy came up to me and said, "Are you shaman? Do you want some ... mushrooms?" Now I was 70 years old at the time. I suppose it's not inconceivable that an old guy like me might want some magic mushrooms but it had been about 45 years since anyone offered me drugs on the street like that. I got a kick out of it. No, I didn't take him up on the deal!

seattlepitboss

OK, now for the post-mortem. I split all the wood. About 15% of it showed signs of deterioration internally from the fungus. I kept that separate. I used that wood to start the initial fire for warmup yesterday on a cook, and the smoke smelled fine so I went ahead and used the shroomy wood. The smoked pork and turkey came out with a lovely light smoke flavor, just what I expect from fruitwood.