You Big Fruit

"A tomato is a fruit!" How many times have you heard someone declare this old saw as if they have just shared a great truth.

The tomato is not a fruit, it is a vegatable. Granted, botanically a tomato is a fruit sincee A fruit is any fleshy material covering a seed or seeds. By this standard so is a zuccini, an eggplant, a green pepper, cucumber or a jalepeno.

Horticulturally speaking, the tomato is a vegetable plant. The plant is an annual and nonwoody. Most fruits, from a horticulture perspective, are grown on a woody plant (apples, cherries, raspberries, oranges) with the exception of strawberries.

But as always, the law decides. In 1893, the United States Supreme Court ruled the tomato was a "vegetable" and therefore subject to import taxes. The suit was brought by a consortium of growers who wanted it declared a vegetable to protect U.S. crop development and prices. Fruits, at that time, were not subjected to import taxes and foreign countries could flood the market with lower priced produce.