One occasionally sees, cut into the side of a hill or lying flat next to a home's foundation, a door in that ground that leads to a drab, potato-colored wonderland of vegetable storage: a root cellar.

Storing crops in a root cellar is a great way to preserve the harvest. But if you don't have one already, don't despair. It's fairly easy to make a space to store vegetables at the proper temperature ...

To make a nifty, mini root cellar right in the garden, simply bury a bucket and cover it with a straw bale. For sweet, crisp carrots all winter, we always left them in the ground under a thick layer ...