Trouble in the Garden State

Scott Hardie | May 1, 2005
The New Jersey state legislature is up in arms over whether the tomato can be declared the official state vegetable, since it is in fact a fruit. (link) They can't declare it the official state fruit because they recently (and narrowly) chose the blueberry instead. How a state can get to this day and age without having declared either is beyond me, but perhaps its because some people seem to take it so seriously.

The disagreement is driven by two definitions: Botanically speaking, the tomato is a fruit, but legally speaking (dating back to a court ruling), it's a vegetable. Common sense dictates that it's usually used as a vegetable in salads and sauces, but the last thing Jersey needs is to be ridiculed further for choosing a fruit as their official state vegetable. I don't know why this should become a partisan issue, since reasonable people could find themselves on either side using the reasoning above, but for some reason Republicans have aligned themselves on the fruit side, and Democrats have aligned themselves on the vegetable side, and the situation seems intractible. Erik and Steve can tell us all about the benefits and necessities of coalition politics, but on a matter this trivial, doesn't it just seem silly? I vote Democratic but I say tomato is a fruit; would I be betraying my party if I were in New Jersey office?

(And if the Democrats wind up winning this battle, I don't want to hear any jokes about New Jersey being a "persistent vegetative state.")

Erik Bates | May 1, 2005
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Amy Austin | May 2, 2005
How a state can get to this day and age without having declared either is beyond me...

This sentence alone is good for a chuckle.

(And if the Democrats wind up winning this battle, I don't want to hear any jokes about New Jersey being a "persistent vegetative state.")

You just keep on providing the material, Scott... and maybe -- just maybe -- we won't use it. ;-DDD

(And BTW... at first glance, I thought that perhaps Erik had just made his pizza preference known in the wrong discussion... ;-DDD)

John E Gunter | May 2, 2005
Fruit that's used as a veggie!

John

Aaron Shurtleff | May 2, 2005
Well, as the person from the state whose state flower is the freakin' White Pine Cone, I would vote for NJ to declare the tomato their state vegetable just to take some pressure off of Maine.

Michael Paul Cote | May 2, 2005
To be perfectly honest, fruit or vegetable, if it were grown in NJ I wouldn't eat either! And don't worry Aaron, until you mentioned it, probably no one knew about the Pine Cone, and I'm from New England.

Jackie Mason | May 2, 2005
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Michael Paul Cote | May 2, 2005
Jackie you're right it is funny. I wish that I could get paid to sit around and debate whether a tomato is fruit or vegetable.