Sit down. Seriously, you might want to sit. You have been lied to all of your life.
How many times did you open your lunchbox or peer into your fridge just to pick up a ripe strawberry or banana and think “gee, what a delicious looking berry!” Well, it turns out that you were only right about one of those fruits. And it wasn’t the one you might think.
I will finally expose you to the dirty, dirty truth about these malicious lies. I will be your tour guide to honesty.
1. Strawberries Aren’t Berries
So last fall I took my one and only Plant Biology course (hallelujah!) and during that class, I learned that by definition, berries have their seeds on the inside. Unless you’re a total fruit-phobe who’s never picked up a strawberry, you probably know that they grow their seeds on the outside. To be a super annoying pretentious geek, strawberries are technically an enlargement of the stem. So next time you’re chomping on strawberries, be grossed out that you’re consuming a plant tumor.
Photo by Becky Hughes
2. Bananas Are Berries
You may be tempted to bifurcate that 5-day-old banana and prove me wrong when I tell you this, but bananas actually have teeny seeds inside and so—you guessed it—are technically berries.
Photo by Delissa Handoko
3. Pumpkins Are Also Berries
In a couple of weeks when you’re out buying a pumpkin to carve, casually remark that “all of these berries look very large” because, technically speaking, pumpkins are berries too. Give a whole new meaning to making a berry crumble or berry pie, doesn’t it?
Courtesy of Danielle Scott, Flickr
4. There Are More Offenders
Another fruit that has wrongfully claimed berry-dom is the raspberry. Fruits such as pomegranates, kiwis and avocados have been evading their true berry classification. What’s so important about all of this? Well I’m just eagerly waiting for the day that doughnuts or butter is declared a berry…that would truly be cause for celebration.