Composting in Eastern Colorado

Hello - Newbie in eastern Colorado here. We are going to start food composting. The thought is a pail in the kitchen that we'd then go bury in the yard/ garden. So what would you do with it when the ground is too frozen to bury it? I read that compost can be frozen for a period of time, but then that means plastic bags. There are eco friendly  compost bags but that also means money.

What's your system?

Typically you wouldn't want to bury your compost, instead you would want to pile it up so it can receive oxygen and you want piles large enough to generate heat from the beneficial bacterial growth. As the pile breaks down it will be generating heat up to 150 degrees. It helps to pick a spot with good southern exposure to prevent freezing initially and here in Colorado you would need to ad quite a bit of water due to the low humidity.

In addition to food scraps you will need other ingredients to make it work, specifically for the nitrogen and carbon. These can usually be sourced for free from your local area. At the end of the day you will have awesome organic fertilizer.

Here's a good video-

https://youtu.be/nxTzuasQLFo

I frequently bury food scraps here in the Denver area. Usually I put a piece of flagstone or other pavers on top so the raccoons or other critters don't dig it up. It seems the last 10 years or so the ground hasn't frozen for long periods of time. If I needed to do something with food scraps in the winter and the ground was frozen I'd let it freeze outside in a secure bucket until the ground thawed. Generally though I have a wood chip compost pile going that I can add to during most of the winter.

Hi, Candace

If I were in your situation I would use the Trash Can Method of composting for the winter.

Basically collect the scrape as you stated in the kitchen and then transfer to a trash can with a lid in the winter.  No turning or other maintenance processes.

When spring comes the contents of the trash can can be the start of a new "Spring Compost pile".

Like this only don't cut out the bottom:

https://permies.com/t/139253/composting/Compost-trash

https://permies.com/t/139110/composting/faster-composting-idea