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[SenoraRaton]

I can't fiqure out how to farm.  I have been watching the youtube video tutorials by Captnduck, and read several other places and it seems rather simple.  I created my plots, they were built but when I try to designate the building pref, I have no seeds avaliable.  I have a plethora of seeds that I brought with me when I started, but I can't plant anything.  I built plots both outside, and inside to no affect.  Am I doing something wrong?  I read somewhere about soil, but all I see surrounding my fortress is grass/trees etc.

Apparently those tutorials were outdated... I just read at the top of the page "How to farm.."  so I'm going there.

[Quietust]

Make sure you're watching the 2010 tutorials and not the old ones - in 0.31, subterranean farm plots must be muddy.

[Sutremaine]

If you bring seeds they'll be subterranean plants, so they need plots on subterranean tiles. You said 'inside' and 'outside' and probably did mean 'below ground' and 'above ground', but they're not the same thing as far as DF is concerned (see here). Grass and soil tiles above ground can be farmed on without any preparation if you have above-ground seeds. Normally I splash out on skilling my Grower up to Proficient Herbalist to get a head start on farming, since it's so much easier to plonk a farm down on the surface and cut it off from wanderers than it is to faff around with irrigation or the caverns.

[MrGimp]

I agree.  Farming above ground would be easier to master first.  Plant some wild strawberries or prickle berries and youre set. 

Foraging is probably enough to feed a small fortress by itself.  Just put a couple dwarves with plant gathering skill and just live off of the growth on the surface (hit d, then p to gather plants).  After they eat them, you get the seeds (unless you cook them, so dont cook them until you have some seeds saved).   So you could show up with no seeds and no food and no drinks and as long as you have a temperate climate and a puddle to drink out of, you have all you need to keep a few dwarves fat and happy.

Its only when the population goes up that you really have to farm.