settling the controversy

for all of you who have always wondered whether tomatoes are fruits or vegetables:

Botanically speaking a tomato is the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. This would mean that technically it would be considered a fruit. However, from a culinary perspective the tomato is typically served as or part of a main course of a meal, meaning that it would be considered a vegetable. This argument has led to actual legal implications in the United States. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws which 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 this controversy in 1893, declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, along with cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas, using the popular definition which classifies vegetables by use, that they are generally served with dinner and not dessert. The case is known as Nix v. Hedden.

In concordance with this classification, the tomato has been proposed as the the state vegetable of New Jersey. (via wikipedia)