Yesterday morning, I was getting my lunch ready as Travis was about to walk out the door for work. I was slicing a cucumber wondering if it was considered a fruit or a vegetable. I voiced my thoughts to Travis and he said the same thing I thought. If it has seeds inside, then it's a fruit. But then, think of all the plants we eat with seeds inside: pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, the list goes on. Are all these fruits then?
My next thought was how do vegetables propagate if they do not have seeds? What about lettuce?! If there are no seeds in lettuce, then how do they continue on?!
Oh the things I have to worry about.
I did a little research and for all of those that are just as concerned about the fruit vs vegetable debate, here is what I found:
A vegetable is any edible part of a plant that is usually a leaf, root or stem. A fruit is any edible part of a plant with sweet flavor that is also the ovary of a seed-bearing plant. One website said that all fruit are vegetables, but not all vegetables are fruit. Tricky. All vegetable plants have seeds, they just may not necessarily be IN the vegetable.
I didn't really find this to clear up much for me. It's not cut and dry the way I'd like it to be.
Lettuce in particular is very peculiar. The longer lettuce is allowed to grow, the more bitter it becomes. When lettuce is farmed, it is picked for sale before it gets bitter. BUT, if the farmer wants lettuce seeds, they have to be patient. Eventually, the lettuce grows what is called a "bolt" that grows out of the lettuce head. A flower and seeds grow, making lettuce the leaves of the flower. Voila! The seeds can then be harvested!
After writing the word vegetable this many times, it no longer looks to be spelled correctly.
Vegetable.
Vege Table?
My brain is saying veeg table.
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