Quote Originally Posted by NTBugtraq View Post
Karen,

What makes you think there is no sugar in the ice? I'm not sure I understand that reasoning. Personally, I'd just thaw the ice on a large volume of sap and expect the ice to have sugar. Teach me, please..
When you get ice forming in your buckets there is always less sugar in that ice than in what remains in your bucket. (I always check the sugar content in the melting ice with my refractometer to make sure I'm not dumping anything that is over 1.5 - 2%). If I get some slushy or crystally ice I usually end up dumping all of it, but it you get a hard freeze and the ice is a solid block then I let it melt down to about half or a third and use what melts off because more sugar is trapped in solid ice than in slushy ice.