Is it safe to eat tomatoes from plant in compost pile?

[Soccer Mom]

Um, what you are you composting for? Isn't it for your garden anyway?

Eat your volunteer tomatoes!


I had a pumpkin do that once. We had thrown the rotten halloween pumpkins into the compost bin. Seeds sprouted the next spring and we had pumpkins again. Too bad they were too early for halloween!

 

[chickabator]

dh said that when he was growing up his sisters sewer pipe messed up and they had the best tomato plants they had ever had and it had huge tomatoes on it and said they tasted better than any he has ever eat. so I would eat them with no problem.

 

[tulie13]

I agree - the only thing I might not eat growing out of a compost pile like that would be carrots...

Or potatoes...

But tomatoes? Sure - IN A HEARTBEAT!

 

[Davaroo]

Keep in mind that the tomatoes are the result of the plant breaking down what it finds at the roots. The fruit is "filtered," if you wish to look at it that way.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I've never heard of bacteria, only that fresh poo will burn the plants. I would eat them in a second!!

 

[English Chick]

Eat them... there are some potatoes growing in mine from peelings I threw on there... I willl dig them up and eat them............enjoy!

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Potatoes growing from peelings?? I didn't know they would do that!

 

[English Chick]

Quote:
Potatoes growing from peelings?? I didn't know they would do that!

Neither did I... just goes to show you what Mother Nature can do when left to her own devices............ cant wait to see what they are like!

 

[insiderart]

Just wash them well and enjoy! The scuttle butt on "don't eat from the compost pile" kind of originates from those germophobes! Humans have been eating food from their middens for thousands of years. As a matter of fact, your midden was often where your food grew before directed agricultural practices.

I think we are too germaphobic! The human needs body some pathogenic challenges to keep the immune system in reasonable working order.

Just realize that if you are putting fresh droppings on the pile, rain can splash from the ground over 10-12 feet away. This is why they say don't eat the produce, because of the rain splash bacterial delivery system. Don't panic though, that's what washing is for LOL!

 

[silkiechicken]

Funny thing is, when people eat raw things like salad or undercooked meat from the store and get sick... a lot of the time it is because a human who did not wash their hands along the way! That e. coli was from human colon, not the local cow. Yuck!