Quick puzzle

[vison]

Artichokes aren't vegetables, then?

[Alatar]

Hey, I just posted it. If you want to track down the author, feel free.

[Holbytla]

I am wondering maybe whether the distinction is because artichokes are actually thistles. It is a stretch but I can't think of anything else.

Around these parts, for maybe 3-4 weeks a year, fiddleheads are sold as a vegetable.
A fiddlehead is an unfurled top of a fern.
From where I stand, it is neither a fruit or a vegetable, and maybe the artichoke falls into that type of category?

Dunno.

[Primula Baggins]

I think they maybe just didn't think of it.

Artichokes are technically flower buds, but so are broccoli and cauliflower, and no one would claim they aren't vegetables. Vegetables can be stems, leaves, roots, and fruits. And shoots, like asparagus and fiddleheads. And buds, like capers.

And spikes are, too, footwear, and not cheap, either.

[yovargas]

veg·e·ta·ble

n.

1. A plant cultivated for an edible part, such as the root of the beet, the leaf of spinach, or the flower buds of broccoli or cauliflower.

ar·ti·choke

n.

1. A Mediterranean thistlelike plant (Cynara scolymus) in the composite family, having pinnately divided leaves and large discoid heads of bluish flowers.
2. The edible, immature flower head of this plant.

Sounds like a vegetable to me.

I don't think that any fruits count as vegetables though.

[Primula Baggins]

No, but many "vegetables" are fruits. Tomatoes, peppers, squash, eggplant. . . .

[Holbytla]

I don't care who says what, neither a fern nor a thistle is a vegetable.

[Primula Baggins]

Fine.

I'll eat your share of the artichokes.

[Holbytla]

Damn things are hardly worth the bother anyway.

Speaking of classifying "edible things";

There is still a raging debate over the sweet potato/yam thing.

I challenge anyone without a microscope to tell the difference.
In fact I challenge anyone with a microscope to tell the difference.

eta:
And to quote Mr. Prim,
"It's all stuff".

[Primula Baggins]

[The One Ring]

A lot of the common classifications that we use, like calling cauliflower and tomatoes "vegetables," comes about because of trade treaties, where the produce has been technically classified by the Dept. of Ag so that it would fall under certain tariff regulations.

"Vegetable" isn't really a botanical term. Some plants we eat the root, others the stem, leaf, flower, etc.

Probably the working distinction most people use is between sweet and not-sweet. If it's sweet, they think of it as fruit and that's where you find it in the supermarket. Our rhubarb, for example, is stacked with the fruit.

Jn

[yovargas]

Two that have bugged me forever are tomatoes and cucumbers - those are NOT vegetables. They are clearly fruits, people!!!

[Holbytla]

Having an enclosed seed and developing from a flower, cucumbers are scientifically classified as a fruit. Much like tomatoes and squash, however, their sour-bitter flavor contributes to cucumbers being perceived, prepared and eaten as vegetables. It should be noted that vegetable is a purely culinary term and as such there is no conflict in classifying cucumber as both a fruit and a vegetable.

[Primula Baggins]

Oh, the decadence of modern life, where standards everywhere are being blurred beyond recognition!

<runs off waving arms in woe>

[yovargas]

Sour bitter?? Fine. If the tomato gets to be a vegetable, then I'm gonna start calling lemons vegetables. And pineapples. And mangos. And kiwis. And peaches. And...

[Holbytla]

Bah.
Getting Fluufy caught in a door is a tail of woe.
Calling a cuke a vegetable is a tale of hoe.

[Primula Baggins]

Where do you buy your pineapples, yov?

All that stuff but lemons should be sweet. . . .

And lemons aren't "savory" like vegetables (things that go with cheese or salt, for example).

[yovargas]

Did Holbt just call me a hoe?

Where do you buy your tomatoes that they're bitter or sour?

And everything goes better with cheese.

[Holbytla]

Tomatoes are very acidic and generally are not very sweet.
Pineapples are very acidic but should be sweet.


Ok here is the difference.
You can take a sour thing like a lemon and make a sweet lemon meringue pie.

There will never be such a thing as tomato meringue pie.

Case closed.

It is all in the preparation and the manner in which it is served.

goes off to make a sweet yam pie

[yovargas]

Sweet Green Tomato Pie

INGREDIENTS
# 5 medium-size green tomatoes
# 2 [8 or 9-inch / 20 or 23-cm each] pie shells
# 1 cup [200 g] sugar
# 1/4 teaspoon [1 mL] salt
# 6 thin lemon slices
# Allspice
# Nutmeg
# 3 tablespoons [45 g] butter

PREPERATION
# Preheat oven to 350°F [180°C].
# Scald green tomatoes for a few minutes, to soften skin; remove tomatoes from water, peel and slice tomatoes.
# Line a pie plate with one pie shell.
# Sprinkle bottom of dough with very little of the sugar.
# Arrange half of green tomato slices over the bottom of the pie shell.
# Sprinkle green tomato slices all over with half of remaining sugar and half of salt; top with 3 thin slices of lemon and generously sprinke all over with allspice and nutmeg.
# Evenly dot with half of the butter.
# Repeat using remaining ingredients.
# Top with remaining pie shell and cut slits into dough, or make a lattice top.
# Bake into preheated oven, for 40 to 45 minutes.