Fruits, Veggies, Herbs, and Organic Foods

Spencer as a teenager used to claim that he was working towards his daily recommended amounts of fruits and veggies by drinking Mountain Dew. After all, orange juice is one of the ingredients! As it turns out, the definitions of many plant-related food terms are indeed nebulous enough to allow for some very odd claims.

 "Vegetable" technically and historically means anything having to do with a plant. So flowers, fruits, seeds, stems, roots, and leaves are all vegetables in that sense . . . even if they are inedible or poisonous! In common usage, though, the word "vegetable" is now used specifically for plant parts that are edible.

In culinary usage, there are some very non-botanical explanations of why some fruits (the part of the plant containing seeds) are called "fruits" whereas others are more often called "vegetables." If usually served as a side dish (e.g. cucumbers, green beans, and most squashes), they are called "vegetables," but if traditionally served as dessert (e.g. oranges, cherries, grapes, watermelon), they are called "fruits." I suppose the designation must have been difficult for certain foods such as apples and pumpkins that can be used either way.

The tomato is especially interesting. In 1883, in order to find a loophole in the tax on vegetables (can you imagine a special tax on vegetables today?!), farmers protested that the tax should not apply to tomatoes, since they are obviously fruits, botanically speaking. The Supreme Court ruled that tomatoes must officially be classified as vegetables!

The word "herb" has a similarly wide basic definition, meaning any seed-bearing plant that dies down at the end of a season . . . edible or not! And perhaps the most infamous example of a plant word's being hijacked into a specialized meaning is "organic." This word has always applied to all living organisms, and to any material derived from a living organism. So, in spite of the pressure to set up specific standardized designations for "organic" food, the simple truth is that all food is organic!