Beet Juice

[Mom70x7]

Ok - I did some searching, because I was curious as well.
There are several sources for this information, including Channel 5 out of Kansas City.
This, from Ohio, says it best, I think:


The Ohio Department of Transportation also plans to try out the stuff this winter in the northwest corner of Summit County and parts of Lake County and western Cuyahoga County.

The biodegradable solution is better for cars, too, allowing reduced use of calcium chloride, which boosts the effect of salt.

''Calcium chloride is nasty,'' said Paul Barnett, Akron's public works bureau manager. ''It's wicked on cars, bridges, trucks.''

''It is a 'green' treatment,'' Webster said.

Columbus officials plan to wait until a snowfall of at least 1 inch is forecast and then try out the beet juice on some roadways in the brine pretreatment, then in the salt treatment after the snow falls.

The mixture isn't sugary; otherwise it might lure cattle and other animals to treated roadways. Once sugar has been extracted from sugar beets, a waste product remains. Producers developed the deicing use after noticing that the waste never froze.

The beet juice is brown, and gives salt and the brine liquid a similar color.

''You will notice the difference as it is falling off the trucks,'' Barnett said.

''When it snows, we may have to go over the same route three times applying salt and calcium chloride. According to the manufacturer, we should only have to go once (with the beet juice solution),'' Webster said.

[W. Gray]

Apparently, they cannot use this stuff straight for two reasons.

It is expensive.

And, there probably will not enough to go around once everyone gets on the bandwagon.

[Roma Jean Turner]

  Beets are just a nutrition packed food.  They have solvent properties and are known for being powerful detoxifiers  for the blood and liver.  They are also helpful with gout. I'm guessing it is these same properties that keep it from freezing.  I recommend beets to patients who have digestive problems. I have a friend who makes the best pickled beets.  Every year I have her can at least a dozen jars for me.  I've gotten up in the night, just feeling a little hungry, and eaten a few beets.  Better for a sweet tooth than candy and much more nutritious.  I believe it helps to thin the bile as well.

[Teresa]

If I had to eat beets, I would starve to death. I can't think of anything I hate anymore than beets. or cooked carrots.
Lord, if I want to be sick..and I mean deaths door sick! .. cram some of those nasty things in my mouth.
( part of it is the taste and part of it is the natural sugar content) I detest and am highly allergic  to sugar and the taste of sweet,
in addition to the taste of them period..

[W. Gray]

Wonder what V-8 juice would do for an icy road?

[Diane Amberg]

Roma Jean, so you are saying, if I eat lots of beets... It'll cure my gout, my feet won't freeze so I can save on winter footwear, and then I can pee on my driveway and the ice will melt.   No?...That's not what you said? Oh well 

[Tobina+1]

Wow, Diane, you have been off-line for a while.  That was a pretty interesting summation of this round-about discussion!  We're glad you're caught up now... hee, hee, hee!

[Joanna]

I love this place!  And I love pickled beets!  I don't like beets any other way however, and I used to hate cooked carrots, but do like the kind roasted in the oven with beef... and I love carrot cake...  now I'm getting hungry!

My sister-in-law Joyce taught me how to make pickled beets after I first got married, but it's been so long...  Maybe I'll get around to finding someone to plow & till a garden spot for me this year.  I've got plenty of space and will probably need something to do to keep me busy and out of trouble.  Wonder if I could con Joyce into coming over to "teach" me again???  Probably not.  Oh well.  It was pretty easy as I remember, cleaning up was the worst part.

I saw a TV show about those sugar beets, they look like overgrown sweet potatoes and not like garden variety beets at all.

[indygal]

Joanna, I too love pickled beets and canned several pints of them in the early 1980s when I had a respectable garden. I do remember it was easy but messy .... looked like a magenta paint ball battle took place in the kitchen. I don't know if we'll be able to till up a garden this spring, but I'm willing to help you if you should decide to do so. Dang....wouldn't we'd be a real "Lucy and Ethel" episode? (I'll be Lucy, as usual). LOL

[Joanna]

....  Oh!   The mental image I'm having right now!   Oh! ....

I wonder how magenta will look in my new kitchen???