Before someone jumps on FL for using the term "winter", I'm sure she meant "winter-like conditions".

Up here in the subarctic, we are frozen from Nov to Apr so it's a matter of throwing the stuff onto a pile and covering with browns. In the spring, when it thaws, it will begin to compost. Last year I had the tumblers emptied in the late fall and used them to accumulate stuff over the winter season. It worked very well so I am doing it again this year. A couple bags of leaves on the bottom, throw the scraps in and when there is a layer, cover that with another bag of leaves, repeat til full, move onto the next tumbler.

If natural browns are hard to come by, paper/cardboard can be subbed in. I don't use much paper myself but lots of people do.

Lloyd

P.S. I loves finches too!

Just throw it on top and let it freeze

I have a worm box in the basment so when the snow gets to deep they get the scraps and I don't have to make to many trips to my big pile

Given the moisture content of those fruit peelings there is a good probablity that when your temperatures drop below freezing they will and not get digested, but if you cover them some (insulate them) the active bacteria in your compost may well work on them before spring. I have, amny times, put the fruit peelings from making pies, in my compost bins at this time of year and had the bacteria digest them with no problem even though the air temperatures were consistently below 32 F (0 C) because the internal temperatures were much warmer due to bacterial activity.

I have a 3-sided concrete bin that I use as my main pile. I build it up each fall and just let it sit over winter.

But for stuff you describe, I have an enclosed bin called an Earth Machine. That's where my scraps go in the winter. Right next to it I have a 32 gal. trash can filled with shredded leaves. When I've dumped enough scraps in, I toss in handfuls of leaves on top. Or sometimes I use shredded junk mail.

I don't like to throw stuff on top of the big pile because we are right next to a wooded gully and the critters like to come up and snack.

Val

Tidy cat litter buckets I cut the bottom off and bury them up to the lid. Two years ago I started the buckets in the layering process when I got up to lid depth the bucket was pulled up some. My buckets are employed all year.

I just keep throwing things on the pile, weather is is -5 or 85 outside.