Natural Produce

With Spring planting season remember that there is no biological difference between fruits and vegetables. The difference is entirely cultural.

Let's take a look today at the old debate concerning what exactly is a fruit and what is a vegetable? The fruit/vegetable that seems to end up most often on the disputed border line is the tomato. Although I get the impression that the majority of people consider it as a vegetable.

To be sure, there is some well-established division between fruits and vegetables. If something grows on a tree, it is almost certain to be considered as fruit and if it grows under the ground, it is just as certain to be classified with the vegetables. When the stalk of the plant or the leaves are eaten, or it requires preparation before eating such as boiling, this seems to make it fall into the vegetable category.

However, it seems that the most profound division between the two is simply how we serve it. If it is considered as part of the main meal, it is a vegetable but if it is considered as a treat or dessert, it is a fruit. The presence of sugar or sweetness generally labels it as a fruit, indeed fructose is known as "fruit sugar".

But yet these simple presumptions leave us with all manner of contradictions. Rhubarb pie is made from the stalks of the plant but is sweet and regarded as dessert. Beets grow under the ground and yet also have a sweetness to them. In fact sugar beets are widely used as a source of sugar, especially in Europe, they are not as productive as sugar cane but will grow in temperate climates. Corn syrup is widely used as a sweetner in commercial food production but corn is considered as a vegetable.

Aside from this, the controversy revolves around that produce which grows neither under the ground nor on trees, but on vines and bushes. This is where the arbitrary designations of fruit and vegetable really become obvious. Two can grow in very similar ways and in similar form. Yet one ends up classified as a fruit and one as a vegetable, depending on usage.

Have you ever wondered why tomatoes are considered as vegetables but strawberries as fruit? Why are blueberries and raspberries fruit but peas are vegetable, especially when the pods of the peas are not generally eaten? Does it make sense that chick peas are vegetable but grapes are fruit? How about that squash and eggplant are vegetables but cantaloupe, melons, watermelons and, pumpkins are fruit?

We could simply say that if we make soup out of it, it is a vegetable; but if we flavor (flavour) ice cream with it, it is a fruit. But this is an arbitrary designation based on human usage and not on biological classification.

Why not just drop the fruit and vegetable designations altogether and refer to it all as "natural produce"?