Fruits vs. Vegetables (An Introduction)

Aloha vegephiles!

Before I begin my journey to taste every single vegetable, I thought I ought to set some parameters and define some definitions.

First, I'll define myself. Well, as best I can.

Hi, I'm Shauna Krystin. I love to cook and I love eating fresh food that was recently grown by a farmer. I do eat meat, also dairy, grains, and chocolate. I love cheese and I use a lot of coconut oil. I market weight loss and health products (you can read more about that on my other blog Shauna Krystin's Crazy Wrap Thing), but my true passion is real food - learning about it, cooking it, and tasting it. I'm anti-GMO, anti-fast food, anti-processed junk, pro-digging up your lawn to plant a garden, pro-teaching your kids to cook, and pro-veggies! I have a pallet garden on my balcony this summer, and am enjoying learning about natural, organic gardening methods.

Next definition. What is the difference between fruits and vegetables?

Prepare for your mind to be blown...

Culinary and culturally speaking, vegetables are exactly what you think they are. They are savory plant parts that we eat. But botanically speaking, vegetables are edible plant parts such as the roots, stems, buds, and leaves (leafy greens, root veggies, celery, broccoli). Fruit, on the other hand, is the part of the plant that comes after the blossom, the swollen ovary that contains the seed. Here is the mind blowing part - many things we think of as vegetables are actually fruit: cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, squash, eggplant, peppers, and even tree nuts! Technically, grain is also a fruit. Legumes are another story.

So how exactly did botanical fruit become culinary vegetable, you ask? Strangely enough, a Supreme Court decision in 1893 determined that tomatoes should be taxed as vegetables in commerce, because they are savory-tasting, "grown in kitchen gardens, . . .[and] usually served at dinner." So not only are tomatoes and the like culturally considered vegetables, they are legally defined as such. Meaning, if you had a bell pepper issue and took it up with the Supreme Court, they would likely defer to the 1893 decision of Nix v. Hedden and determine that if it looks like a vegetable and tastes like a vegetable, despite actual scientific classification, it's probably a vegetable.

What does this mean for the purpose of the blog? Absolutely nothing. Just some fun facts. I'm going to be tasting and talking about vegetables, both common and unusual, I prepare based on my culture's (and apparently the legal system's) definition of vegetables. I might even  throw a few actual botanical fruits in there. Just don't be surprised if I interject that zucchini is technically a fruit. That's just the way I am.

Veg it up, vegephiles!