By Mike Isbell
University of Georgia
Volume XXVIII |
Sometimes I have to go digging through the books on my bookcase to prove things to people. Such was the case when my friend Willie dropped by to see me.
The big question
"Mike, when I have a question about something, you're very good at helping me come up with the answer," he said. "I got to arguing with a fellow about a tomato. He says he learned in school that a tomato is a fruit, and I told him it's not -- it's a vegetable."
"Well, Willie," I said, "I'm afraid he's right -- it is a fruit."
"Now, I always believe what you tell me," Willie said. "But you're wrong this time."
"Let's see what old Webster says," I said as I pulled my dictionary off the bookshelf. But the dictionary definition didn't do anything but confuse me and Willie both.
So I pulled my "Georgia Master Gardener Handbook" off the shelf and looked up "fruit." That was a mistake, too. The fruits it mentioned were the ones Willie expected: apples, peaches, plums, grapes, blueberries -- everything but tomatoes.
I was losing Willie's confidence in me really fast.
Finally, I saw "The Wise Garden Encyclopedia" among the scores of books on the shelves. And I looked up "fruit" in it.
And this is what it said: "Botanically and strictly, fruit is the ripened ovary of a flower, including its contents and any closely adhering parts. Examples are cucumber, pepper, tomato, apple, plum, raspberry."
Yes!
A social conundrum
But that wasn't good enough for Willie. He launched into a tirade of the problems you would have if you called a tomato a fruit.
"Now, Mike," he said, "if you go into a restaurant to get some tomato soup and you say, 'Give me some of that fruit soup,' they're going to tell you, 'This isn't fruit soup -- this is tomato soup' and look at you like you're crazy!
"Or, if you've got a little child, and he asks you for a piece of fruit, you're going to give him a piece of apple, or a pear, or a grape -- not a piece of pepper!"
After several minutes, Willie finally said, "Mike, let's say you're standing in a food buffet line, they've got all the meats -- the chicken, pork chops, meat loaf -- they got all that together. And then you get to the vegetables -- the potatoes, turnip greens, carrots -- they got all that together.
"And then you get to the fruits," he said. "You ain't going to find tomatoes!"
