When I live innawoods, I always cook over alder. However, I once tried to cook over spruce when faced with a shortage of alder, and the flavor was so overwhelming I could hardly eat the corn I roasted. It was literally coated with a sticky resin from the spruce wood. Some wood is even toxic, and not all species are palatable. Spruce bud tips can be used for a nutritious tea, but cannot be the exclusive wood for smoking or cooking over, because it is so resinous. It was like trying to eat smoked porcupine, or marinating meat in turpentine.
I wish you and your beautiful family all the best in a terrible situation. Your innovative thinking and willingness to work hard is a great asset I am sure will best enable your successful negotiation of the difficulties you face.
Sometime I used to make barbecue over a campfire entirely out of spruce cones. Of course, you have to wait until the resin burns out and the cones turn into coals, but I was pleasantly surprised by the faint pine flavor.
If you cook in a cauldron over a fire, the pine resin becomes a serious problem when cleaning the dishes, sticking with a hard glaze on the bottom of the dishes.
Nature gives us all the minimum we need, we have begun to forget how to use it harmoniously.
I am sure that the set tasks will be achieved! This is a good moment to test friends and others.
Be always sure you are right, then go ahead.--Davy Crockett