03. Fruits and Vegetables

Fruit is the part of a plant that protects and nourishes the seed until it is ready to grow into a new plant. As the seed matures, the fruit ripens, until it is fully colored, loaded with sugar, and bursting with juice, qualities that make it attractive to animals, who hopefully will eat the fruit and scatter the seed, thus helping the plant species to flourish.

According to this description, apples, pears, peaches, cherries, tomatoes, cucumbers, squashes, eggplant, bell peppers, and avocados are all fruits. So why do we call some of these fruits “vegetables”? There are two definitions of “fruit.” The one we discussed already is the botanical definition, the role that fruit plays in the life cycle of a plant. But the common use of the word is based on a culinary understanding, which says that fruits are sweet. So any botanical fruit that we don’t like to taste sugary (tomatoes, cucumber, squashes, etc.) we call a “vegetable.” For the purpose of this discussion, let’s call them “fruit-vegetables.”