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Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

recipes.howstuffworks.com

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Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#21

Post by dTal »

ovi256 wrote: post #14
gumby wrote: post #8

And Tomatoes, by ruling of a Massachusetts court, “are a vegetable for tax purposes”

And Congress ruled that tomato pizza sauce is a vegetable for nutritional purposes. Don't you feel well legislated ? https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/post/did-congr...

Nothing in particular about putting tomato sauce on pizza should make it less nutritious. Legislation should be targeting nutritional facts, not presentation. The article you link shows that nutritionally speaking, it wasn't an unreasonable ruling.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#22

Post by arrrg »

monadic2 wrote: post #4

Is anything actually gained from rigid definitions like this? People clearly use berry in a different way than botanists do.

I guess it’s interesting in that you can learn something about botany.

However, culinary definitions (where strawberries are berries and tomatoes are vegetables) are just as valid and not wrong because botanical definitions seemingly contradict them.

Bananas can both be berries and not berries at the same time and both definitions can be valid, what’s most useful then just depends on the context (and for most people most of the time that context is, by the way, a culinary one and not a botanical one).

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#24

Post by elcomet »

In french, we have the word "Baie", which means berry, but is not widely used for fruits, and we also have another expression which is much more used, "Fruits rouges", literally "red fruits". I think it covers more accurately fruits like raspberries, strawberries, and others. I don't know if "red fruits" is also used in english.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#25

Post by mcv »

That strawberries are not true berries becomes fairly obvious once you learn that tomatoes are berries. All berries seem to have fairly watery flesh surrounded by a thin but tough skin. Tomatoes have both, strawberries have neither. Raspberries superficially look like a collection of tiny berries from this perspective. Bananas have a skin, but it's not thin, and their flesh is not watery.

That's just my layman's analysis, though. It's suited me well for many years, but if now eggplants and peppers are also berries, I'm starting to wonder whether the word berry even means anything.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#26

Post by mcv »

blowski wrote: post #11
monadic2 wrote: post #4

Is anything actually gained from rigid definitions like this? People clearly use berry in a different way than botanists do.

It's just wordplay, a basic pun, because the same word, "berry", appears in two different contexts. In everyday usage, a strawberry is a berry, but in botany it's not. If you're doing botany, you should probably use the latin term Fragaria instead of strawberry. Edit: If you like this, you'll also find interesting that many nuts (hazlenuts, walnuts, Brazil nuts, pecans, almonds) are not nuts but seeds. One of the few…

I know peanuts weren't nuts, but hazelnuts and walnuts?!

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#28

Post by mnw21cam »

8note wrote: post #15
mehrdada wrote: post #2

Potato plant produces a berry too, but the actual fruit is toxic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_fruit

if I remember correctly, the potato itself is toxic raw

No. Cooking doesn't reduce the amount of toxin in potatoes very much. Potatoes are toxic when green, although this varies massively among the varieties. But a general rule to follow for potatoes is if they are green then don't eat them.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#29

Post by blowski »

mcv wrote: post #26
blowski wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just wordplay, a basic pun, because the same word, "berry", appears in two different contexts. In everyday usage, a strawberry is a berry, but in botany it's not. If you're doing botany, you should probably use the latin term Fragaria instead of strawberry. Edit: If you like this, you'll also find interesting that many nuts (hazlenuts, walnuts, Brazil nuts, pecans, almonds) are not nuts but seeds. One of the few…

I know peanuts weren't nuts, but hazelnuts and walnuts?!

If you can find it, there's an episode of the BBC comedy panel show "Unbelievable Truth" where they list all the nuts that aren't nuts. Entertaining and surprising.

The bit we eat is usually a seed or fruit - the shell encasing it is a nut. At least, that's what I understood.

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