HGSB at Deks American Restaurant & Tap Room

Thanks to everyone who came out for our Homegrown Two duo show in Wilbraham, MA. Georgianne and I had a great time sharing or music and stories to the full house of enthusiastic listeners. This coming Saturday night we will be back with the full band, The Homegrown String Band™ quadrupelo, at what seems to be becoming our home base, Deks American Restaurant & Tap Room in Rocky Point. The show starts at 9 pm and goes 'til midnight as always there is no cover charge and the craft beers will be flowing.

Homegrown Two in Massachusetts April 10th 2016

Homegrown Two (Rick & Georgianne), AKA "Cackle & Crow," will be peforming at the Wilbraham Public Library in Wilbraham Massachusetts on Sunday April 10th at 2 pm. This will be a free concert of original and traditional music performed on guitar, banjo, ukulele, doumbek, harmonica, and mountain dulcimer. Songwriters, songcatchers, and the spirit of American music

Wilbraham Library
25 Crane Park Drive
Wilbraham, MA  01095
413-596-6141
Sunday April 10, 2016 

The April Fool

World Poetry Day

Today is World Poetry Day. I celebrated by lending my voice to The Long Island History Project's "Long Island Power Ballads" which features various people reading old Long Island poems & ballads from obscure/forgotten poets. My contribution was reading a couple poems by Si Tanhauser, a depression era poet who moonlighted as a LIRR Ticket agent.
The Long Island History Project is a joint effort of Dowling College and the Long Island Television & Radio Historical Society. Last year our band, The Homegrown String Band™, was featured in the series about Long Island music.

HGSB - The Commack Library Sunday March 13th, 2016

This Sunday, at 2 pm, The Homegrown String Band™ will be returning to the "pocket" theater at the Commack Public Library in Commack, N.Y. This is a great listening room and we will be performing or usual mix of traditional and original acoustic American roots music; featuring banjo, fiddle, doumbek, guitar, mandolin, harmonica, and jaw harp.

Backyard Micro Maple Sugaring 2016

First Drop - photo by Rick Jackofsky

February 20, 2016 - Day 1, Year 4: Sugar season came early to Long Island this year. I tapped 7 trees on Wednesday morning. I actually could have started a week earlier, when we had above freezing daytime temperatures, but I decided to wait until the predicted cold snap and rain storm passed. The sap flow has been prodigious. I collected about 40 gallons from my 7 taps between Wednesday and Saturday. I got an early 7am start this morning and worked 'til about 5 pm. It was a beautiful day, temps in the 50s, and I had a good supply of seasoned wood. I estimated that I boiled down about 30 gallons of sap. I was expecting a yield of 2 1/2 to 3 quarts of syrup, but was disappointed to only end up with 2 quarts plus a few ounces.

Movin' to the Pantry - photo by Rick Jackofsky

February 22, 2016 - Day 2, Year 4: I did a short day of boiling today since I won't be able to get back out till Friday or Saturday. Another pleasant day, sunny with temps in the high 40s. I only collected about two gallons of sap today, I guess it didn't get cold enough last night for a good flow. All told I boiled about 20 gallons of sap in 6 hours for a yield of 3 pints of canned syrup and another 1/2 cup for the fridge. A little less than a gallon so far this season. I'm not getting as much syrup per gallon this year. I wonder if the lower sugar content is because of the unusually warm, short winter.

February 28, 2016 - Day 3, Year 4: Weird weather this week. On Tuesday the temperature shot up to 60 degrees and we got hit with a big thunder storm.  A three foot square 3/4" piece of plywood was blown off my evaporator and landed about 20 feet away. My sap collection barrel got blown over. It only had about five gallons of sap in it, but still must have weighed about 40 pounds. A wooden swinging glider that weighs about 40 or 50 pounds was also blown over; yet my barrel of kindling and an empty recycling bin stood firm. ???? With the warm temperatures this week sap flow was pretty much nonexistent, but the sap started flowing again on Friday and I managed to collect about 22 gallons of sap over the weekend. On Sunday (sunny & 60 degrees) I boiled it down (7hrs) for a yield of three pints of syrup.

Watching the Pot - photo by Georgianne Jackofsky

March 7, 2016 - Day 4, Year 4: Today was my last day of boiling. I pulled my taps and boiled down 28 gallons of sap to yield  a few ounces more than a half gallon of syrup in a nine hour day.

2016 Totals:
7 trees tapped
100 gallons of sap collected
32 hours of boiling
2 gallons of maple syrup

2015 Maple Sugaring Blog

2014 Maple Sugaring Blog

2013 Maple Sugaring Blog

2016 Syrup Supply - photo by Rick Jackofsky

Homegrown String Band at Deks Rocky Point - 3/5/16

Good Times and Good Tunes with The Homegrown String Band™

Deks American Restaurant & Tap Room

Rocky Point, NY

March 5, 2016

9pm to 12am