Wood heating stoves often have a small cooking surface, but since their primary design function is to heat, indoor cooking in the summer is extremely uncomfortable. In that case, a small wood cook stove located out of the living area, even in a greenhouse, would be a much better idea. For those on a budget, an extremely good thermal mass wood heating stove can be assembled at a very good price. Once of the great advantages of this type of stove is that it does not have to be assembled and installed until it is actually needed. No matter what type of wood stove you use, the proper chimney cleaning and ash removal equipment is required, and standard safety precautions must be enforced.
Wood stoves, of course, require wood fuel.
That depends upon the locality. The ideal is a mixture of hard and soft woods. Those to avoid would be dogwood, wild cherry, or any pithy soft woods, as they do not store well for extended periods of time. Virtually any fruit wood makes a great fire, and can also be used in a smoke house for curing meats. The firewood must be cut, split and stored properly .