With Halloween just around the corner it's time we once again ask the important question:
Is your Halloween pumpkin is a vegetable or a fruit?
We went over this last year, but for those of you that weren't around, let's explore once again.
The answer is the same as a tomato, and that's because pumpkins and tomatoes have something in common?
Here's a hint, it's in the above photo.
They both have seeds, right?
This, of course, makes pumpkins and tomatoes both fruit.
But wait there's more...
It also makes cucumbers, squash, green beans and walnuts all fruits as well. Right?
The answer is also based on the parts of the plant involved.
Besides the seeds, basically, fruits are developed from flowers, vegetables are not.
Vegetables are not made from flowers; instead, they are the plant's roots (carrots), stems (celery), leaves (cabbage) and other edible parts of a plant.
It's common to refer to these fruits as vegetables:
* Pumpkin
* Squash
* Tomato
* Cucumbers
* Green beans
* Hot peppers
* Bell peppers
If you are speaking in culinary terms, you can call these fruits vegetables, even though they are actually fruits.
The United States Supreme Court back in 1883 had some extra time on their hands and entered a legal verdict on whether a tomato should be classified as a vegetable or a fruit.
They decided unanimously, in Nix versus Hedden, that a tomato is a vegetable, even though it is still a fruit.
Another way to determine whether it is a vegetable or a fruit is after being picked a Fruit will ripen, and a vegetable will rot.
