My potatoes are staring at me

[seashells]

I wanted to try potatoes anyway. I have a box of organic potatoes from the local farm, and I am doing my darndest to eat them up (I am personally eating 1.5 or 2 pounds a DAY). But I just went to wash up my nightly batch (DH helping me eat them today, yay) and about half of them have sprouted eyes.

This is a culinary question and not gardening, but while I'm here, I assume I can't eat the ones that have eyes? Or can I?

But anyway, my gardening question is - how do I care for them so they reach planting time in good shape? Right now I have them in a cardboard box in my pantry. My pantry is about 59F in winter, but it's obviously spring so it will be warmer. Move to fridge?

I assume I have to continue to keep them well out of the light.

Do I DO anything now? Water them? Should I buy some compost (I make my own but since it just thawed, my latest batch is not even close to ready yet) and bury them in buckets already? When the time comes, do I cut the potatoes into pieces or plant them whole and hill them up? I've never done potatoes, ladies! Help a girl out please :)

Oh, I don't *think* I have any sweet potatoes left from last year, but in case I happen to stumble upon a cache in the pantry, do I treat them the same way? I know they are different, I don't even know if they sprout the same, but they call them slips the same as potatoes, so...?

[HeatherAtHome]

Yes, you can eat potatoes that have eyes as long as the potato itself hasn't wasted away into a shriveled mess. Just pull the eyes off and eat as normal. 

I don't think I would put potatoes in the fridge, just leave them out of light in a cool place. 

I know that normal potatoes from the grocery store are treated so they won't grow, not sure what "organic" means when it comes to potatoes. I do know that seed potatoes are a heck of a lot pricier than normal potatoes. I'm running low on garden potatoes so I've started buying from the grocery store. I want to keep my garden potatoes to plant this spring. I planted 10lbs last year, harvested 80lbs? for the 2 of us and think I would double it this year. 

[JamieCatheryn]

I planted some grocery store potatoes last year, which inspired me to buy seed potatoes this year and plant them for real as the fresh potatoes were so delicious. It was remarkably easy: I cut them up so there were eyes on each chunk, stuck them in the ground in the spring and when plants grew up I'd heap more dirt on top. Ideal potato storage is dry but in moist air, about 50-60 degrees without much variation, warmer than the fridge but colder than room temp. You know, root cellar conditions.

[Meksmama]

We bought some from a local farm also and have 3"-6" sprouts on them waiting until planting time here... Keeping them in basement in dark cool area. Hoping they last until we can plant.