[intro plays]

Jessi: Taking care of our plants at the fort is one of our favorite things to do, and the best part is: sometimes we can eat what we grow. We grow lots of plants, including vegetables like lettuce and carrots and fruits like blueberries and tomatoes.

Yeah, you heard me right. According to scientists who study plants, called botanists, both blueberries and tomatoes are actually kinds of fruit, even though a lot of people call tomatoes vegetables. But how do we know the difference between fruits and vegetables?

It can be tricky, but if we learn a little bit about how plants grow, we can make a pretty good guess. So let's start with how plants start: seeds. When a young new plant begins to grow from a seed, it pushes its roots deep into the soil stretches its stem and leaves up towards the sun. Sometimes the roots, stems, leaves, and flower buds of a plant are edible, which means we can eat them safely. And we call all of these edible plant parts including unopened flowers, roots, stems and leaves vegetables.

Check out this popular favorite: the carrot! If you look at a carrot as it's growing you can see its leaves and stem grow above the soil, the part that we usually eat goes down in the ground. That's right, the carrot is a root. And since it's a root that we can eat, it's a vegetable.

Alright, now what about fruit? The fact is, every fruit starts with a pretty blooming flower. Flowers not only look and smell nice, they also do something really important for the plants that make them: they help plants reproduce! When a living thing reproduces, it makes more of itself, and plants that make flowers reproduce by making seeds. In flowering plants, a seed starts to form in a special part of the flower, which begins to swell as the seed gets bigger. A lot of the time, part of the plant grows around the seed to protect it. Eventually, the flower falls off and the swollen part of the plant that's left behind becomes what you and I know as a fruit.

So if it's an edible plant part like a root, leaf, stem or unopened flower bud, it's a vegetable. If it's part of a flowering plant that has a seed in it, it's a fruit. So do you think you can guess whether what we're growing in the greenhouse is a fruit or a vegetable? Let's go for it.

We'll start with a delicious plant that's super good for you: spinach. What do you think spinach is: a fruit, or a vegetable? A vegetable is right! Spinach is a leaf. If we take a look at the spinach plant, we can see that it has roots to hold it in the ground, and the leaves are held up by a stem. Good job.

How about a cucumber? What do you think: fruit, or vegetable? Right, a fruit. If we look at a cucumber plant, we see it has roots, stems, and leaves, but those aren't the parts we eat. Cucumbers also make flowers. It's that special part of a flower that becomes the cucumber fruit. If we look inside of a cucumber that's been cut, we can see its little seeds.

Let's try one more. How about green peas: fruit, or vegetable? Believe it or not, peas are a fruit! Pea plants make flowers and part of these flowers become the pea pod. If we eat the peas in the pod, we're actually just eating the pea seeds.

Now, sometimes it's hard to tell what something is in the supermarket. Sometimes we grow fruits that don't have seeds or have seeds that are too small to see. It can also be tricky to tell if something's a root, stem, or a leaf, but it's always fun to see if you can guess what in your shopping cart is a fruit and what's a vegetable. Just make sure you eat plenty of both.

Thanks for joining us on SciShow kids! If you have a question about a food you love or anything else, then get help from a grown up and let us know by leaving a comment down below or by sending us an email at kids@thescishow.com. We'll see you next time!