Why Are My Potatoes Producing Tomatoes

Okay, so I'm new to this allotment mallarky, having taken on my first this year. I'm growing Maris Piper, King Edward and Pink Fir Apple. They have all flowered well but now, only on the King Edward, there are tomatoes.

Yes, tomatoes. Little green ones. They might be something else, but whatever kind of something else they are, they are something else's that look exactly like tomatoes. 

Is it just me? Do they ripen? Can I eat them? Harvest them? Make chutney with them? I do only have three though. Very odd. Any ideas? 

The are the fruit containing the seeds of the potato plant and they are poisonous -

DO NOT EAT THEM.

People new to potato growing are sometimes confused by the term 'seed potatoes'.  They are not the green fruit that you have seen.  Seed potatoes are the potatoes from the the roots of potato plants grown from potato seeds, and these are what potato growers like you planted back in the spring.

Please don't eat the tomato like fruits on your potato plants - they are poisonous

Pam x

Tomatoes and potatoes are from the same family, that's why their "fruit" looks th same. As already said, potatoes' fruit is toxic, so don't eat it. You can pull them off and compost them if you want.

Wow, thank you. I definitely won't eat them. How odd though, I'm discovering all sorts of weird and wonderful information on here. Who would have thought that growing your own veg could be so delightfully lethal. 

The juice of Lettuce is a quite strong narcotic, bet you did not know that either.

Any particular lettuce? I have Webb's, Cos and Little Gem. Do you just suck the juice out? 

Beware of eating too much lettuce - http://potter.thefreelibrary.com/Original-Peter-Rabbit-Books/1-3 

"It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is "soporific."

I'm quite soporific enough thank you very much lol 

And rhubarb leaves are not good for you - only eat the stalks.

Are slugs edible?-just a thought

My hedgehog thinks so - thank goodness 

I believe that garden snails are

Will they go in a sandwich?

Not of their own volition 

Am considering a slug casserole-how many will it take to feed a family of two and a dog?

I'm not sure but reckon my garden could supply all your needs

Please do be careful of the fruits of potatoes, they really are quite poisonous.  I often wonder who discover these things, that you can eat the 'roots' of spuds but not the fruit, and the stalks of rhubarb and not the leaves.  I have often wondered if the fact that the fruits of potatoes look like tomatoes, as they would, being the same family - gave rise to the earlier idea that tomatoes were poisonous? There was a chef to one of the kings, can't remember which one, who put tomatoes in a stew to kill the king, ran for his life, but of course the king had a lovely supper and rose again the next day quite happy and well! 

I am sure I saw a Hugh Fearnley sh...ing house try a slug stew and it was disgusting according to him, if my memeory serves me right.

If you want to eat snails from the garden then collect them up a few weeks before hand and keep them in a containeer and feed on lettuce leaves and chives. that way you know they contain no toxins.

Though why anyone would want to eat things which have little taste and only are edible when drowned in filthy muck garlic and butter I do not know.

Well I thought slugs were just snails which are homeless  so would taste the same. Not that I would eat either, gristly little buggers they must be.

If I did though, I'd cut my food bill by half, as there must be 10 thousand of the little buggers on our allotments.

Climbing the shed, inside the roof of the greenhouse, stuck to pots and even balancing on the top of 6ft bean canes. I could start olympic mollusc events.