Is it a coincidence that elementary school students from right here in Washington, NJ where I live inspired the introduction of a bill in NJ to have the tomato named the state vegetable? I think not. Initially, I wasn't sure I could really get behind this effort. Stickler for detail that I am, I stumbled on the fact that, technically, a tomato is a fruit not a vegetable. Or so I always thought. That is, until, my brilliant friend Jodee got me to do a little research on the matter.
“The supreme court - 100 years ago or so - declared it a veg. instead of a fruit so that it could be taxed,” she wrote in an email to me. “Their logic was that one eats it with dinner not as a desert.” I looked it up and it’s true.
As I was looking that up, I got sidetracked on an interesting linguistic element of this whole discussion. Something I read said that "fruit" is a botanical classification whereas "vegetable" is simply a culinary term, so it isn't really an either/or situation. I looked up both “fruit” and “vegetable” and found, MUCH to my delight, that a tomato is actually BOTH! How cool is that?
The definition of vegetable is: “any herbaceous plant whose fruit, [etc.] are used as food” or “the edible part of such a plant.” The definition of fruit is: “any product of vegetable growth.” So, basically, “vegetable” can refer to the plant itself or the fruit of said plant if the fruit is edible. Ergo – a tomato can be correctly called either a fruit or vegetable. Phew!
And now for some fun. A silly chain email also forwarded to me today:
Subject: Fw: Tomato Garden
An old Italian man lived alone in New Jersey. He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison.
The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:
Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.
Love,
Papa
A few days later he received a letter from his son.
Dear Pop,
Don't dig up that garden. That's where the bodies are buried.
Love,
Vinnie
At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug-up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.
Dear Pop,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love you,
Vinnie