On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 481

Mostfoodplantsarenotlong-livedtrees,but
relatively small, delicate plants that produce
their seeds and die in one growing season.
This herbaceous habit gives plants greater
flexibilityinadaptingtochangingconditions,
andithasworkedtoouradvantageaswell.It
allows us to grow crops to maturity in a few
months, change plantings from year to year,
rapidly breed new varieties, and eat plant
parts that would be inedible were they
toughened to endure for years. Herbaceous
plantsbecamewidespreadonlyinthelastfew
million years, just as the human species was
emerging. They made possible our rapid
cultural development, and we in turn have
used selection and breeding to direct their
biological development. We and our food
plants have been partners in each other’s
evolution.
Definitions


Wegroupthefoodsweobtainfromplants
intoseveralloosecategories.
Fruit and Vegetable Apart from such plant
seeds as wheat and rice, which are described
in chapter 9, the most prominent plant foods
inourdietarefruitsandvegetables.Vegetable
took on its current sense just a few centuries
ago, and essentially means a plant material
that is neither fruit nor seed. So what is a

fruit? The word has both a technical and a
common meaning. Beginning in the 17th
century,botanistsdefineditastheorganthat
develops from the flower’s ovary and
surrounds the plant’s seeds. But in common
usage, seed-surrounding green beans,
eggplants, cucumbers, and corn kernels are
called vegetables, not fruits. Even the United
StatesSupremeCourthaspreferredthecook’s
definition over the botanist’s. In the 1890s, a
New York food importer claimed duty-free
statusforashipmentoftomatoes,arguingthat