Tomato – Fruit or Vegetable?

There is no question here – tomatoes are fruit.  Period.  It’s easy to tell a fruit from a vegetable; there are two different ways:

1. Look at the seeds. If they are INSIDE what we eat, it’s a fruit. If there are no seeds inside, it’s a vegetable.
2. Look at the flower while it’s growing. If the flower suddenly has the edible part attached, it’s a fruit. (The flower will fall off long before the fruit is harvested.) Vegetable flowers are above or separate from the edible portion and turn into seeds.

So yes – tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers, peppers, avocado and cantaloupe – all fruits.  What we put into a garden/tossed salad or fruit salad, does not define whether it’s a fruit or vegetable nor does its placement in the grocery store. Squash, tomatoes and cucumbers, although fruits, are almost always in the vegetable section.

And speaking of squash, zucchini is not only a fruit, it’s a summer squash.  The signs at the supermarket say “summer squash” on the yellow and “zucchini” on the green, but they are both summer squash.  The yellow is usually a Crook Neck or a Straight Neck squash.  Winter squash – hubbard, butternut, and acorn – are also fruit, and ready in the fall – usually after a frost.

Corn is a whole different story. Corn on the cob is one of my summertime favorites. It’s right up there next to watermelon. I’ve been known to eat a meal of exclusively corn on the cob for dinner. I usually buy four dozen at a time. No, I don’t eat that many at once! I steam them, cut the kernels off the cob with a sharp knife, place the kernels into an inexpensive plastic bag, then slightly twist the top of that bag and neatly place it into a vacuum-seal bag.  I roll over the tops of the bag and seal with a clothespin. Into my freezer they go, flattened for the night. The next day I vacuum seal and return them to the freezer.

Is there anything better than fresh corn-on-the-cob in the summer? There just might be – frozen corn off the cob swimming in organic butter in January!  It’s always a treat to eat on Thanksgiving Day or any cold wintry day! I’ve not bought insecticide-laden corn from the supermarket in several years. It is a lot of extra work and very time consuming to freeze my own corn, but well worth it!

Corn – is it a fruit, vegetable or grain?  I personally think the jury might still be out on that subject. The Whole Grains Council defines corn as a grain if it is dried and a vegetable if it is cooked. Are the seeds inside the husk? Do we eat the seeds? Maybe corn is a seed! Hmmm…what category do YOU think corn would fit into? Comment below. If you haven’t already, take our QUIZ: Are You Smarter than a Turnip?