12 October—Injury first, of course: Some four decades before they gave us the SARS-CoV COVID-19 virus, our good friends in the People’s Republic of China exported the equally pernicious and persistent Agrilus planipennis to the United States. It’s entirely possible the U.S. government played a part (active or passive) in both alien invasions, but that’s irrelevant.

Agrilus planipennis is commonly known as the emerald ash borer. And thanks to its ubiquitous and voracious larvae there’s a surfeit of some of the finest firewood anyone could ask for all over the country. Around here, sad to say, ash trees (except the mountain ash, which the bugs seem to ignore) appear at the moment to be going the way of elms and American chestnuts.

White ashes predominate around here, most growing adventitiously. And magnificently and beautifully. And cutting them down and converting them to firewood is depressing and has been taking up a lot of time these past few years.

Now for insult: The Stop & Shop supermarket chain, like most of its competitors, makes a point of promoting locally-sourced items, including but not limited to produce. Yet with all the firewood of local provenance that’s available for sale (or even to be given away), S&S is selling little bundles of wood that come from New York State at a ridiculous price and even smaller bundles that come from Estonia at an even more ridiculous price.

Estonia is in Northern Europe, by the way, even farther distant from Litchfield than Fort Plain, New York, where the domestic wood is “produced and originated.”

The New York firewood comes in .75-cubic-foot bundles at $7.99 each. The Estonian firewood comes in .6-cubic-foot bundles at $10.99 apiece. A full cord of firewood is four by four by eight feet, or 128 cubic feet. A standard face cord is 16 inches deep, or about 42 cubic feet. Surprisingly, firewood isn’t sales-taxed in Connecticut.

That means a person who buys New York State wood is paying over $1,300 for a full cord and about $450 for a face cord. The Estonian wood would come out to over $2,300 for a full cord and about $750 for a face cord. I’m told that full cords of hardwood are delivered locally—cut, split, sometimes stacked—for under $500.

To be sure, all the supermarket firewood is heat-treated (in a kiln), pest-free, certified, and approved by New York State. The Estonian wood is also approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Like everything else these days, all the packaged firewood also carries the notorious Flake State warning that it may do all manner of vile things to you.

The variety of New York firewood isn’t specified, but it appears to be white ash, the very stuff the Chinese ash borers have killed. The Estonian product is white birch, one of the easier firewoods to burn; gives off lots of heat but burns fast. White ash, being denser, burns more slowly; it’s also the cleanest burning firewood, doesn’t need to be seasoned, and splits easily.

Now to reconnoiter the back forty for the late white ashes to deal with next year . . .