Robert Wilkins Makes The Burlington Free Press - Video Slide Show

[Henry]

Robert Wilkins dumps a disk of frozen sap from a bucket in his sugarbush in Fairfax on Tuesday. He was concerned the sap would expand as it froze, and rupture his buckets.
GLENN RUSSELL, Free Press

Also check the Audio Slide Show which also includes Wayne Sweet at:

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/legacy/slideshows/032508sapgap/index.html

[msm]

I gotta ask -- Why is Robert tossing the ice-sap out ?  Why doesn't he collect it ?  No sweetness in the ice ?  I recall collecting the ice-sap during my youth, were we boiling it down for no good reason ?   Just wonderin'  must be a good reason, since native Vermonters don't waste anything. 

[Henry]

Hi Mike,

I have sent a note to Proctor Maple Research at UVM to see what they have to say about the sugar content in frozen sap.  You make a good point about Old Vermonters not throwing anything out.  Bob may have on the other hand decided that the lesser of two evils was throwing the frozen sap out to save his buckets.  It will be interesting to see what Proctor Research has to say.

[Henry]

I just got a very prompt and timely response from Timothy Perkins at The Proctor Research Center at UVM:

Hi Henry,

Great question.  Some sugarmakers dump ice, others don’t.  This mainly seems to be based upon what they learned from their parents, or whoever taught them about sugaring, and varies a lot from place to place.

Research done quite some time ago (Stinson and Willits 1963. Freezing sap.  Maple Digest Vol 2.) shows that although ice that forms in buckets will have a lower sugar content, and the sap in the bucket will thus be slightly sweeter, there is some sugar that gets trapped in the ice itself.  If you toss the ice, you’re also tossing some sugar.  Recommendations made decades ago suggested NOT throwing out the ice.  The Summary of that work is shown below.

Summary

1.            Do not discard ice from partially frozen or melted sap. The value of sugar lost with the ice exceeds the gain from lower oil consumption.

2.            Dipping frozen sap in plain water or fresh sap has no advantage.

3.            Discarding centrifuged ice which has been crushed or rinsed is advantageous. However, this procedure would not be practical due to the high cost of centrifuging.

4.            Discarding the ice from partially frozen sap appears economical only under unusual condition wherein an evaporator house could not process all of the sap supply or a maple farmer could not haul all of his sap run. Under these rarely encountered circumstances it would be advantageous to process only the liquid portion of the mixture since syrup solids are greater in the liquid phase.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Sincerely,

Timothy Perkins, Ph.D., Director
Proctor Maple Research Center
University of Vermont
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
802.899.9926 Voice
802.899.5007 Fax