By Rebecca Sigh | Guest Columnist

Why celebrate vegetables? This column is dedicated to getting people to eat their veggies and spreading awareness of their diversity and necessity in a healthy diet.

This weekend at the Vicksburg Farmers’ Market, we will celebrate by answering a question about a local favorite: Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? The answer is not what you will expect!

It may seem simple to us. Eat it for lunch? Vegetable. Eat it for dessert? Fruit. But it’s not that easy.

There are legal definitions of fruits and vegetables, as well as scientific ones. Tomatoes fit the scientific definition of fruit, as they form from a flower and contain seeds. So botanically, tomatoes are fruit. However, the way we eat them and treat them in cooking means that they also fall into the legal category of vegetables. Want to make it really confusing, it could also be considered a berry.

Tomatoes come in all sizes and shapes, but there is one fact about tomatoes that no one can deny. The best tomatoes no matter what kind are always homegrown. We will have plenty of them this weekend at the Vicksburg Farmers’ Market.

“Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes
What’d life be without homegrown tomatoes
Only two things money can’t buy
That’s true love and homegrown tomatoes.”

   — Guy Clark, “Homegrown Tomatoes”

For more information on the Vicksburg Farmers’ Market email farmersmarketvicksburg@gmail.com or call 601-634-4527 or follow us on Facebook @Vicksburg Farmers Market or Instagram @farmersmarketvicksburg.