Heck yes. I'm down on the peninsula. You can find seed potatoes at many local nurseries now. You are correct that unless you are growing quite a lot that mail order is kind of an expensive way to go. Anyways, Wegman's in Redwood City and Yamagamis in Cupertino have had seed potatoes for sale since January. Even Orchard Supply Hardware has them, but not as diverse varieties.
You can grow them in the bigger nursery pots, like 10 or 15 gallon size. You can grow them in potato bags, which is a freestanding fabric bag. You can grow them in an old garbage can. 1/2 whiskey barrel, drainage tube, you can build a wooden box. Anything of a certain size that will hold soil and that as the plants grow you can fill up with either more soil or leaves or any organic covering like straw will work. Potatoes are super easy.
I'm growing some in my finished compost pile (8 Yukon Golds).
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Here are some potato bags (one has a potato plant up...growing from an unharvested left-over) and there is a planted half whiskey barrel there and the raised bed has depressions where I have more of this year's planting. There are onions covered by the white cages and I'm trying to overwinter last season's peppers (the black nursery pots with what look like dead stuff!)
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Some of last year's bounty.
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I grew potatoes like mad in Indiana. They're actually pretty easy to grow. I think the only issue you're going to really have here in California may be gophers eating your tubers. You can eliminate this by growing your potatoes in big containers, like 1/2 cut whisky barrels. You can cut your seed potatoes, just make sure each piece has at least 2 eyes. Cover with 2 to 4" of soil. Water throughly, they like to stay moist, but not water logged. They like sandy loam soil. Lots of sun, at least 6 hours a day or more. Fetilize with a slow release, organic vegetable fertilizer. They grow VERY fast, and get very large, so you need to stay up on the mounding so your potatoes don't turn green (if they're exposed to sunlight, the skin will turn green). You need to mound or hill the potato plants as they grow, as the potatoes develop from roots that grow off the stem. To make the potatoes easier to harvest, instead of mounding up dirt around the plant, I use straw. The potatoes will grow very nicely in the straw and they are very easy to reach in and harvest. You can begin to harvest after the plants have flowered. Just reach down in the straw and pluck the potatoes, you can harvest a few as the plant continues to grow and end its life cycle. Once the top of the plant starts to turn yellow and die, you can dig out all the rest of the potatoes, or, if they're in a container, stop watering and leave them in the container in the shade, and they will keep nicely in the cool dry soil for quite a while. You'll get a variety of sizes with your potatoes. I used the little tiny ones for soup, they are actually the most delicious! I think this is one of the best vegetables you can grow with your kids, they just love digging for their potatoes. Pretty foolproof veggie!

Patty S.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Potatoes in Containers

I don't bother with seed potatoes, I just pick nice red ones from the grocery. I have 4 large tubs sunk in the soil in the garden. I plant the potato near the bottom of the pot and I already have plants growing from potatos I didn't get out last year. Also I had ripe seeds on my potato vines. One seed sprouted and a little potato was under the soil

I use the tubs because of gophers and I sink them because they don't use as much water and the roots can go outside the tub. Penny

I too grow my potatoes in above ground containers because of the gophers. I never buy seed potatoes but just cut up the potatoes that get eyes while in the pantry. After cutting I usually let them sit on the counter to dry out for a day, then dust them with some Rootone, and stick them in the ground. I don't even bother with the layering, but do watch for any that get exposed to sunlight and make sure those get covered so they don't turn green.

Cut your potatoes up so there is at least a couple of eyes in each piece. Dust them with sulfur and let them dry a bit, a day or two? It is best to have lose soil over them so you can easily dig them with a fork. We don't wait until the plants die because new potatoes are yummy. You always miss a few and so a new plant will volunteer. I also just use old sprouted potatoes from the store. In truth I lasagna compost so I get potatoes, cantaloupe and strawberries where ever. I dig under anything in an inconvenient spot. All bad seeds go in the trash. They put stuff on grocery store potatoes to retard sprouting so your seed potatoes will work more reliably. I am not sure you get warm enough in San Francisco. A pot might be a good idea because the soil is usually warmer.
I am envious of such a fine cat and the rich looking compost.

I'm in San Francisco and had a great crop last year.
Wish I had more space. If you time it right you can get three harvests a year. I did best with my spring crop though. I think I put them down in March, but I started earlier this year.

I put out a few in a fall and got a meager crop. I forgot about one or two and they have beautiful plants right now, just waiting for the flowers to come.

Weather is just perfect for potatoes.

I agree with dgbeig: if you planted your spuds early this year, you really lucked out with this weather. I checked yesterday and the growth on my potatoes is just about to emerge from the soil. I hope I don't jinx things by crowing, but I planted about a month earlier than last year.

I planted red la soda and russets about 2 weeks ago here in Waterford Ca.I hoed out a trench and put the taters every 15" and placed compost on top of each spud.Then I sprinkle some blood and bone meal on this and pull some soil over tthe mixture.Then I placed drip tape on this and spread some more compost and topped it off with the remaining soil.When the spuds appear I continue to pull more soil over the mound and top it with rain spoiled alfalfa hay that's shredded for a mulch ,I have done it this way in the past and have harvested huge taters!