Jeez Louise! We don't have many gardeners here, do we?

Potatoes are easy, don't take much care after planting except for watering, produce a lot of food per plant relative to other vegetables and, using a properly chosen variety, stores very well without processing.

Potatoes are often recommended as a first crop on "new" soil (previously unplanted). Assuming that your soil is relatively good:

Get some potatoes from a garden supply place & ask for a kind that stores well. Most grocery store potatoes are treated to keep them from sprouting, so don't use them. Egg-sized is what you're going for. If they're much larger, cut them into egg-sized pieces, making sure there are at least a couple of eyes in each piece, and let them dry for a couple hours in the shade to form a kind of skin.

Loosen the soil and dig a shallow trench. Lay potatoes on top of soil in the trench, eyes down.

Now you can do it the hard way and cover them with soil, or do it the easy way & cover them with several inches of hay or straw. Don't water until you see the tops poking out of the soil or straw or they might rot before they sprout.

As the tops get taller, keep adding more soil until you have at least 3 or 5 inches over them, or keep adding straw/hay around the sprout until you've got the tuber covered with a foot of straw/hay.

Water occasionally, don't let them wilt. Straw/hay covering will also shade the soil, so you might want to water less.

They will grow 18-24" tall & produce some flowers. When the tops die down, remove soil or straw and harvest the potatoes. Brush excess soil off them (washing promotes mold), set in the shade for a couple hours to harden the skins.

Store in a cool, dark place. Eat any tiny ones right away, they will rot.

Don't use ashes around them, it causes a disease called scab.

Don't expose them to much light, or they will turn green. The green is a toxin called Solanine. A little of it makes the potato bitter, a lot can make you sick.

Sue