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Is it safe to eat my “Poop” tomatoes? (lemmit.online)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The original was posted on /r/nostupidquestions by /u/Gummy_Python on 2023-09-04 21:39:51.

Early summer, my drains were blocked. I had moved to a rural location with a septic tank which hadn’t been emptied in over a decade.

So long story short. Poop, pee and everything in between came up through the drains and made quite a mess at the side of the house. Very disgusting. But it was taken care of, the tank was emptied and the drains cleared.

A month or so later we noticed some plants growing. Well it turns out, these were tomato plants. No doubt from seeds in our (and possibly others) poop, that had begun to grow.

It was all very funny until last week we noticed actual tomatoes growing, and growing really well.

The question is, are these safe to eat or are they contaminated and need to be destroyed? They look unbelievably awesome. But yes, I am also grossed out.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

As long as the tomatoes haven’t touched the sewage they should be fine. It’s a good idea to wash the tomatoes before eating. Leafy greens which might have been splashed with sewage would be a no go. Root veggies also might be contaminated. If you want to be really careful, cook the tomatoes at least 20 minutes, at boiling temps, should destroy any infectious agents.

Source: I used humanure compost in my garden for for about 20 years. Read up The Humanure Handbook by Jenkins if you want to learn how to do this safely.