I did this with carrots and kept them all winter packed in wood pellets that I had wet until they became damp sawdust. I got an Igloo dog house free from Craigslist and used it as a ... cover.. easy to tip back and not dig snow. We dug a hole big enough to insert a 50 galloon barrel with ends cut off... it is actually the access to our 4' deep buried water shut offs. Put a couple of bricks holding a round piece of 3/4 plywood to protect the valves and pipes..... put a 30 gallon metal trash can... no extra hole in it... filled the can, layering 25#s of carrots in the sawdust, not touching each other.... put a few inches of folded newspaper on top after covering the last veggies. put the lid on..... I pulled carrots out from mid-October to March... At the end a few had small roots, but zero rot..... gonna try potatos this year and put carrots in another hole that we haven't used yet... that hole is 4' x 8', so should hold a few cans, but we have to build a top over it this summer....We are in Zone 8,, Washington State west of mountains, about 20 miles from the coast and 12 miles south of B.C. Canada.... It didn't get way cold, but I am sure we were well below frost line, and the doghouse added another layer of protection... could have put pellets in there too for insulation, but didn't need it. small can could be lifted up and out fairly easy, but I mostly just got down and reached ok with my super long arms.
