What I've Learned

A tomato is a seed-bearing structure growing from the flowering part of a plant – which makes it what?

A fruit.

Legally, however, it's a vegetable and has been since 1893 when the US Supreme Court ruled it so.

The case involved a tomato importer, John Nix, who wanted a tax refund. The Tariff Act of 1883 – enacted to help protect American farmers – taxed imported vegetables. Nix claimed that because tomatoes are actually fruit, he was taxed in error and should get his money back.

The Supreme Court said that while a tomato may botanically be a fruit, it is commonly thought of as a vegetable, is eaten with the main course not afterward as a dessert, and so as far as the Tariff Act of 1883 goes, it is legally a vegetable and Nix was not entitled to a refund.

In making its decision, the court cited an earlier case ( Robertson v. Salomon) in which someone tried to avoid paying tax on imported beans by claiming they are not vegetables, but seeds. Seeds they may be, but the court ruled they were vegetables.

Tomatoes and beans are not the only vegetable wannabes. Cucumbers, squash, and peas (fruit, fruit, seeds) are also in the mix. So are eggplants and bell peppers (fruit, fruit).

This crossover happens because fruit has a strict botanical definition, but vegetable does not. Scientifically, there is no such thing as a vegetable.

In grocery stores, there is little confusion. Plants that are thought of as fruit are grouped together, and those thought of as vegetables are grouped together. But this is cultural. In the United States, avocados, for example, are eaten in salads and dips and are thought of as vegetables. In Brazil, they are eaten with sugar as a dessert or in milkshakes and are thought of as a fruit.

Sometimes, we use the word vegetable as an adjective meaning "related to plants" – edible or not. A good example comes from a website about raising sheep, that said, "Vegetable matter in wool comes from feed particles as well as burs, seeds, twigs, leaves, and grasses."

Back to tomatoes. Certainly the 1893 Supreme Court is not the only body capable of making vegetable rulings. A recent bill by the U.S. Congress comes to mind.

Stand back now. Dean Martin and I'm a gonna sing.

"Whena da moon hits your eye like a biga pizza pie, dats a vegetable.

Congress says that it is, so what's next, da Cheese Whiz? Dats a vegetable.

When you walk in a dream, but you know you're not dreaming, signore, Scusami, if you see in school lunch pizza, gee, that's a vegetable."