when to collect? everyday?

[lisound]

I only have out 15 taps. some buckets are 1/3 full but still frozen from the cold weather here in the northeast. others have very little and frozen as well. Now, it warmed up today.
Everything was still pretty frozen this afternoon although sap did run at the end of today. I will assume all is melted for tomorrow and I will collect. but how long can sap stay in the buckets if it freezes at night? I figure the ice will keep it cold.

i have a 30 gal drum but if i only have 10 gal of sap tomorrow, i can store that in a spare fridge till the weekend????

[Mike R.]

I always try to pick it up every day. Usually 45 minutes before sun down I head out the bush. I leave the ice in the buckets to keep other sap cool, I remove the ice once a week, The ice is almost pure water as the sugars won't freeze until it gets real cold. It like natures own RO.

[psparr]

If its got ice in it, it's good for quite a while. And I just had an experience that throws out some conventional wisdom.
I gave a friend ten taps to play with because he wanted to try it out. He tapped first week in January. He called me up the other day and said he was ready to boil what he collected. He stored the sap in two buckets in his garage since January! I politely explained to him that the sap was no good and to throw it out. He insisted on boiling it, so he brought it over and one bucket was yellow, but the other looked pretty good. We boiled 5 gallons and got a pint of medium! That equates to 2% sugar! From month old sap!

I'm not saying this is a good idea but rules are not always hard and fast.

Hope that helps a little.

[happy thoughts]

I'd collect every day if possible. It will warm in the buckets especially if they get sun so you want to keep the sap cold and out of the sun. Process it as soon as possible. In my experience, refrigerated sap starts turning cloudy after 48 hours. I like to take care of it before that but if you can't you can't. I'd just keep it as cold as possible.

[sugarwoodacres]

I always wondered about the ice theory , so here goes. I have 130 taps in on tubing and about 30 on old buckets . This weekend while boiling I took 2 full 5 gallon bucket of ice and thawed it next to evaporator . The sugar content of my unfrozen was 2.7 -2.8 . When the ice thawed , that sap was only0.0- 0.2 which would be about 700 to 1 or so . So it makes sense to toss it I suppose unless you have an RO or loads of additional free time . Off to a great start in NJ. Good Luck!

[lisound]

Thanks. I'd love to collect at the end of the day but not possible. I can do it between 12-2pm. so it shouldn't really matter, just leave the ice behind if there is any. I still have a lot of snow on the ground and keep the buckets packed well. I think I'll even have snow to pack my storage barrels in for the next month if need be.

but if the sap is cloudy, I should dump it, right?

[happy thoughts]

but if the sap is cloudy, I should dump it, right?

That's going to be your judgement call. You're going to get a lot of different answers. Cloudiness indicates microbial activity. That said, you'll kill off anything growing in there when you boil but it may lead to off flavors and darker syrup depending on how cloudy the sap is and what microbes are growing. If it's just slightly cloudy I'd probably boil it myself depending on how badly I needed the sap. But if really cloudy I'd dump it or boil it separately from the good stuff. If it's stringy I'd definitely dump it.