cooking with wood

so there is wood all over here,

and many people that use it for cooking run out of it,
it burns at about 450F, water boils at 212F
the temperature difference is just not that big (238 degrees), so it is not super efficient,
that means you need quite a bit to cook your food

according to Wikipedia charcoal burns up to 4892 degrees Fahrenheit
that means the temp difference is almost 20 times hotter
you end up getting way more heat into what you are cooking,
and this means less fuel needed,
here is how to make it
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/makinglump.htm

there are some neat forced air tricks  that make wood burn hotter, and they are worth using

this is a rocket stove, and it tends to burn hot, fast, efficient, and with usually little smoke (people can see smoke far away)
here is a bit more on how to make one
http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Rocket_Stove

and the solar cooking is likely the best for having free energy that others can't really see you using.
here is more on solar cooking
http://solarcooking.wikia.com/
it is going to be ideal for cooking in clear weather were someone far away might spot smoke from a fire.

I hope I have given you some ideas on how to not use up all your wood with cooking (or heating)
lets just look at the hurricane blown apart areas,
they have all the fuel (broken buildings that they need to clean up anyway that they payed to have done) and parts to make a rocket stove also from the broken buildings,
so they don't have to be cold or need fuel for cooking, yes watching the news(was that last year ?), it would appear that having all the tools you need is clearly not enough to keep anyone warm.