Our snow removal can't be beet -- or maybe it can

Unlike our friends in New Jersey, a little snow doesn't put us in a pickle -- literally or figuratively.

It turns out that Bergen County, across the Hudson River from Manhattan, has started using pickle juice -- which costs about a third as much as salt -- to melt snow on its streets.

Hold the mayo, please.

Even amid one of Minnesota's snowiest winters, state and Twin Cities officials say supplies of salt and other chloride products -- the, um, bread and butter of Minnesota deicing -- should hold up this year.

But St. Paul does use some food juice -- from sugar beets -- when temperatures hover around 0 or below.

"It prevents the snow and ice from bonding with the pavement," said Shannon Tyree, public information officer for the Public Works Department. "It's sort of a brownish-tan color. It's ugly."

But drivers needn't worry that their cars will end up looking like borscht.

Minneapolis and state officials said they stick with chloride products. "Our chemical of choice is salt," said MnDOT spokesman Kevin Gutknecht.

But Twin Cities-based pickle maker Gedney did get a request recently for a large quantity of pickle juice for snow removal, said spokeswoman DaleAnn Murphy Busch. Company vice president James Cook turned it down, though, because he thought it might run afoul of Minnesota Pollution Control Agency standards.