A simple root cellar

With quite a few hard frosts now under our belt here in northern Massachusetts, we figured it was time to bring in the remaining beets and carrots we still had in the ground. After getting over the shock of how many we carrots we actually harvested (a large grocery bag full), we needed to figure out how to keep them from going soft before we could use them. We knew they would keep about a 3 weeks in the fridge, but unless we wanted to eat nothing but carrots and beets for the next 3 weeks, that was not a really acceptable. The solution, a small root cellar made out of plastic bin and some dirt. We put the bin in the basement where it stays above freezing, but is not really heated. We lined the bottom of the bin with a layer of dirt, put in a layer of carrots, and continued this until we were out of carrots. The last layer we covered with straw and leaves to keep some of the moisture in the soil. Total cost = $0 since we already had an extra plastic bin and we had lots of dirt, straw and leaves in the garden. The best part is that there no energy cost to keep the vegetables fresh as there would be if you had them in the fridge since the fridge requires electricity. Obviously this is the first time we are trying this so we don’t know how long they will keep, but we are betting that they will last through winter or at least until we are done eating them.
So, next time you grow or are given some extra root vegetables, why not keep them in this simple root cellar so you can enjoy them all winter long. Then again, this is just Life According to Troy