Today’s tomatoey tale is a study of that lingering, burning question: Tomato, fruit or vegetable?
For answers we turn to an informative Tomato Wiki Update brought to you by our friends at Wikipedia last modified on 17 September 2011. This wonderful wiki offers some tasty insight on “the swelling” fruit’s fruitiness, and for that we are greatful.
Botanically of course, tomatoes are indeed fruits because of their seed-bearing structure which grow from flowering parts of the plant. This in contrast to a tomato-based United States Supreme Court Decision, rendering a tariff-driven vegetable disposition to our beloved Solanum lycopersicum, a. k. a. the tomato plant and it’s juicy beared fruit. Thus a never-ending controversy endures stemming from the old, very old court ruling, as well as the tomato given vegetable status in some culinary circles.
Will the tomato fruit or vegetable question ever be truly reconciled? Surely, we can’t have it both ways.