As a child in South Carolina in the 1950s dirt poor South, my Daddy would make a potato hill. He would dig down about a foot in the ground make a maybe 24 inch round hole foot deep, line it with straw, not a whole bale maybe 3 inches, then put a burlap bag over that, pile potatoes in hole on top of burlap mounting them until you had a good bushel of white or sweet potatoes. Then he made a teepee over this with short small tree limbs, covered those with a burlap bag or 2, then piled dirt, straw over it all. Made a mound of dirt covered taters. He would leave a small opening just big enough to get your hand into, but would cover it with a brick. We would go out to the tater hills beside the barn get potatoes white or sweet for our mama to cook, taters lasted all winter. You want at least a good foot of dirt covering the teepee.
