Fruit or vegetable?

Botanically, a tomato is the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant: therefore it is a fruit or, more precisely, a berry. However, the tomato is not as sweet as those foodstuffs usually called fruits and, from a culinary standpoint, it is typically served as part of a salad or main course of a meal, as are vegetables, rather than at dessert in the case of most fruits. As noted above, the term vegetable has no botanical meaning and is purely a culinary term. Originally the controversy was that tomatoes are treated as a fruit in home canning practices. Tomatoes are acidic enough to be processed in a water bath rather than a pressure cooker as "vegetables" require.

This argument has had legal implications in the United States. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty on vegetables but not on fruits caused the tomato's status to become a matter of legal importance. The U.S. Supreme Court settled the controversy on May 10, 1893 by declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, based on the popular definition that classifies vegetables by use, that they are generally served with dinner and not dessert (Nix v. Hedden (149 U.S. 304)).[31] The holding of the case applies only to the interpretation of the Tariff Act of March 3, 1883, and the court did not purport to reclassify the tomato for botanical or other purposes other than for paying a tax under a tariff act.

Tomatoes have been designated the state vegetable of New Jersey. Arkansas took both sides by declaring the "South Arkansas Vine Ripe Pink Tomato" to be both the state fruit and the state vegetable in the same law, citing both its culinary and botanical classifications. In 2006, the Ohio House of Representatives passed a law that would have declared the tomato to be the official state fruit, but the bill died when the Ohio Senate failed to act on it. However, in April 2009 a new form of the bill passed, making the tomato the official fruit of the state of Ohio. Tomato juice has been the official beverage of Ohio since 1965. A.W. Livingston, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, played a large part in popularizing the tomato in the late 1800s.

Due to the scientific definition of a fruit, the tomato remains a fruit when not dealing with US tariffs. Nor is it the only culinary vegetable that is a botanical fruit: eggplants, cucumbers, and squashes of all kinds (such as zucchini and pumpkins) share the same ambiguity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato

I learned today: Potatoes and tomatoes are related- also related to tobacco and eggplants and belladonna (deadly nightshade) I just like to say DEADLY NIGHTSHADE!

I heard long ago that Europeans used to grow tomatoes for decorative plants, but thought the fruit was poisonous- well I see why now- what with the DEADLY NIGHTSHADE!
There is a resemblance.

I learned something else too- but I've already forgotten what it was. Must be old age or DEADLY NIGHTSHADE!

It seems I have some unusual fascination with tomatoes, but its not new- I'm sure I've written at least one other lengthy blog about tomatoes- (DEADLY NIGHTSHADE)

I'm still really excited about my plants- hope they live all summer! *DEADLY NIGHTSHADE

Wish I had a garden.


deadly nightshade!

Jesus even loves psychotic tomatoes

I didn't make this, but I want to make one now . . .

My students, being my ever present news source told me to be careful about swine flu-Well, acually they said "Sween flu" to which I negotiated out the understanding of Swine- you man like a pig? Pork? Yeah- SWINE like FINE- ok, I'll watch out for pigs, and recently returning Mexicans- One student said her mother called her to see if she was ok from the tornado- (we had a tornado?) and the swine flu--

In other news- maybe Jesus did die on a Wednesday- I just read an article all about how the pope and the Pharisees conspired against us to mislead us into Sunday worship and a "good" Friday. Don't worry the author assures us we will still go to heaven even if we are wrong.

http://ad2004.com/prophecytruths/Articles/Prophecy/3days3nights.html

Uh- I've just been informed that blogging is so out of fashion and I should be "twittering" pshaw!

I noticed that my tomato blossoms closed up last night- which made me wonder if tomatoes were night shades, which made it look it up, which lead me to this poster . . . I don't think I agree.

But they are night shades.

my tomato plants have blossoms-I find that strangely exciting

I just finished making a baby blanket- for no baby in particular

I made a six month resolution to stop buying yarn- one month down

I'm reading Harry Potter 6- but I'm having a hard time remembering 5- geeze how long ago was that?

my mouth wants something salty, but my stomach couldn't care less

it's really hard to teach a class of five students- we just rattle around in our tomb of a classroom

speaking of tombs- the fact that the preacher mispronounced sepulcher on Easter Sunday still makes me smile- not so much that he mispronounced, but how he made it sound- saPLECKer it wasn't an accident- he meant to say it that way. For all I know that's how it's pronounced in the original Latin- but the non-standard-ness of it . . . well :)

he also said Jesus must have died on Wednesday- that's counter-culture and new to me, but some other people seemed to think it was A-okay- something about the Passover sabbath being special or different etc. I'm not sure I buy it. maybe I'll look into that.

http://theliterarylink.com/mangostreet.html

I had my students do an assignment based on this free style poem. They did awesome jobs. It made me want to write one using the same criteria that I gave them. They were supposed to use this writing as model, and write about their names, how they got them, what they mean, how they feel about them, similes, metaphors and stories. Wow. I was impressed. I wish I had more time to think about it and write one now- alas, it is bed time.

I will however post about the bluebonnets which I wrote about over the weekend and didn't publish.

Pk and I went to take pictures of/with the blue bonnets a few weeks ago. Sadly, the blue bonnets were kind of anorexic looking at that time, while now they are looking rather robust. In years past, however, the blue bonnets have been known to curl up and die after a month- so we felt we had to act fast. They had started appearing two weeks before we went, we didn’t want to miss out on the event. We were pre-emptive.

We drove around looking for the best blue bonnets. We were sorely disappointed at the lack of blue bonnets at the Cedar Hill State Park. Although, since we were there already, we had a little look-see around. There’s an old farm on the park property. I guess it’s there to show all the city-folks how farms look . . . anyway- there are several barns, sheds, store houses- and other farmish architecture. What do I know- I never lived on an actual farm. I did briefly live with my grandparents in a semi-farm-like environment.

We read the sign about the barn, we went in the barn. The barn had been built during WWII and was constructed out of some older structures, a log cabin and an old one room school house. The sign asked if we could find the older structures within the larger structure- yeah sure, not that hard. The school house had a door at the front and a window on each side. The door was locked. The window on my side was closed but not locked. I decided to open it and peek inside.

Inside it was dark, very dark, even though the window on the other side was open. It was creepy dark. Being that it was so dark, and that I am so nosy, I stuck my head in the window to see more darkness. That’s when I heard it. It was a – well- defiantly a snort. A snort from something with a rather large nose. It didn’t register at first- I don’t know, maybe I thought PK did it- not that her nose is especially big, but when you’re all into the adventure of dark-school-house-barns of WWII . . . some things just slip by I guess. To punctuate the situation, IT snorted again. I got it that time.

SOMETHING was in the school/barn! I snapped my head out of there, closed the window and bolted it. I didn’t squeal until I heard IT shuffle around in there. How fast can Shannon get out of a state park barn? Dang fast!

PK and I discussed the possibilities of what IT might have been. A cow? It was a barn- but also a state park- would the state really leave an animal in the barn without any warning? The other window was open, maybe a wild animal got in there, maybe a crazy person was living in the barn/school! Strangely enough, it didn’t bother us much once we were out of the barn, except I refused to walk through the barn again on our way out.

As for the blue bonnets, we found some acceptable ones on private property a little farther down the road, just across the road from the pet cemetery. While we were in the area we stopped by to see who was at the cemetery. We saw But-But, Poopie Baby and Dumper. Some people name their animals very literally.

 

Just to be safe.

I heard Abraham Lincoln was a depressed racist who wanted to send all the former slaves back to Africa.

Just saying . . . I prefer summer storms to Lincoln and outhouses. Spring storms are also good.

The blue bonnets are lovely now. More on that later.

In class last week we read this poem,
http://www.internal.org/view_poem.phtml?poemID=109
“Out- out-” by Robert Frost.

First I asked, “What is the story about?”
They said, “We don’t understand.”
I said, “Look at the first line, where is the setting?”
They said, “We don’t know what it means.”
I said, “Look at it, it says, “The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard.” Where are they?"
They said, “What’s a buzz saw?”
This is where it started getting out of hand.
Me: "It’s a motorized saw."
Student 1 : "I don’t know what it is."
Me: "It’s a saw that has a motor, it runs on gas so you can work faster.”
Student 1: "No, I don’t know."
Me: “A chain saw, a motor saw, it makes a sound like “Buzzz!” Texas Chain Saw Massacre?” (Insert miming a chainsaw action)
Student 1: “No.”
Me: “Okay never mind, it’s a saw with a motor, that’s all.
Student 1 talks to Student 2.
Student 3: “I don’t understand, what is a saw?”
Me: (thinking) Déjà vu!
Me: “It’s a tool you use to cut down trees."
Student 3: “What is ‘cut down trees’?”
Me: (thinking) What have I been doing all semester? Do I actually teach English?
Me: “Trees are made out of wood, when you want to use the wood you have to kill the tree and ‘cut it down.” It falls down, then you cut it into pieces to use it.”
Student 1: “I got it!”
Me: “What?”
Student 1: “Buzz saw, chain saw, Texas Chain Saw Massacre!”
Me: “Okay, good.”
Insert translation of “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” into French, where it sounds much less gory.
Student 3: “Oh! It is logical, it makes that sound, so it has that name.”
Student 1: “It isn’t logical! You don’t name things for the way they sound . . .”
I left the room, the conversation was making me thirsty.
I came back and said, “Okay, does everyone know what a ‘buzz saw is now?”
Me: “Good, so what does ‘snarled’ mean?”
Blank looks- I should try a new question.
Me: “Animals make this sound, what kind of animal do you think can make a sound similar to a saw?”
Student 1: “A bird?”
Me: “No.”
Student 2 “A cow?”
Me: “No.”
Student 3: “A car?”
Me: “An Animal!”
Student 4: “Oh! I know! It is the sound a spider makes!”
I’ve lost patience already, and this answer . . . well . . .
Me: “The sound a SPIDER makes?! What sounds do spiders make?”
My imagination is already running wild with thoughts of giant screaming, snarling Venezuelan fighting- jungle spiders . . . I don’t even know if Venezuela has a jungle . . .
Student 4: “Oh! No! I mean a snake!”
Me: “Uh- no. I’ll just tell you. A dog or a wild animal like a bear or monkey when it is angry and it shows it’s teeth, like a growl. So you see, in the first line he is saying that the saw sounds angry like an animal when it cuts the wood.” *poorly worded sentence . . . now I'm thinking about an animal cutting wood . . . no, I mean- While it is cutting wood, the saw sounds like an angry animal. HA!*
Students: “oh, yeah …”

The first line took so much time an energy I wasn’t sure I wanted to go on.