'Free' tomatoes

[Merlinn]

Hi

When we moved into our property in France last year, we had no sanitation and had to resort to going to the loo in the garden, which was very overgrown at the time (thank goodness),

After clearing the garden this year and sorting out beds for vegetables etc, we noticed we had tomato plants growing all over the place. We then realised that they were growing in the places we had used for the loo. These tomato plants are far healthier than those we have grown ourselves and better than those we have bought.

Obviously the 'loos' had broken down into compost and the seeds have germinated.

My obvious question is - will the subsequent tomotoes be safe to eat?
I think they will be - my partner says no!

Cheers

Merlinn

[wulf]

It's the same fertilizer used in a lot of agricultural settings round the world. I'd be more cautious about root vegetables but I think tomatoes will be fine. If you're a bit unsure, how about reserving the fruits for cooking, which should destroy any lurking micro-organisms?

Wulf

[Wombat]

I reckon they would be fine, but Wulfs advice makes sense too!

Nev

[Millymollymandy]

I really wouldn't worry about it at all. After all, tomatoes growing in the ground are likely to come into contact with cat or dog poo, and possibly planted into composted chicken manure - or just fresh chook poo if they are free range. They are all carnivores (or omnivores) and we don't worry about their poo and our veg, do we?

[Verminda Spirit]

I agree that they will be fine to eat~ Let us know how they taste~

[Shirley]

Looks like we all agree... good enough to eat

[hmk]

A fact to astound (or scare ) people at dinner parties is that years ago, part of the water treatment workers wages were the tomatoes that used to grow prolifically along the river banks where the sewage entered.

Perhaps not a cast iron recommendation in itself, but I reckon they'd be fine!

[STHLMgreen]

Thats really something!

I was on a certain Greek island. The farmers poo on the fields normally. (I was unfortunate enough to witness this firsthand while riding in a car)

I was pretty grossed out at the time but the wine there is amazing and everything else we ate that week was amazingly fresh and tasty as well.

Enjoy the tomatoes!

[Wombat]

I saw the same in China!

Nev

[Merlinn]

Further to my original posting about 'free tomatoes'

Well the toms have ripened and believe me they are the tastiest toms we have in the garden!! There are cherry tomatoes, plum tomatoes and some very large tomatoes.

My neighbours here in France seem to really enjoy them and NO I haven't told them where they originated!

Cheers

Merlinn

[hedgewizard]

WHere my lovely chooks were cooper up over the winter there's now a super crop of toms coming up. Hooray for partial digestion!

[digiveg]

Still, HW, you'd probably be the first to agree that eating such clearly affects one's ability to type...

[hedgewizard]

Whut? *falls off barrel*

[Thymepasses]

I read somewhere that the Chinese used to have carts go round every morning to collect "night soil" to use as fertiliser. There are a lot of Chinese people, doesn't seem to have killed many of them off over the centuries!!

Enjoy!