Part One. The Parts of the Plant We Eat

Dad says that the vegetables we eat come from different parts of the plant. Have you ever eaten the flowers or seeds of a plant?

Well, I'll just bet that you have at one time or another!

The delicious parts of the plant that we eat include the plant's bulbs, flower buds, fruits, leaves, roots, seeds, stems and stalks, and tubers. Do you know what part you are eating?

BULBS

Bulbs are thin, tightly folded layers of leaves attached to a short stem. The base of these leaves is big--and it grows underground.

The best example of a bulb is the onion. They are so strong in flavor that they can make you cry if you are slicing them up with a knife!

Since onions grow underground and we can't see them, how do we know when they are ready to be dug up? Well, we can dig them up when the part of the plant above ground turns brown, meaning that it is starting to die and the onions have matured.

Other bulb vegetables that we eat include garlic as seen above on the left. It has a very different flavor from an onion and it is probably one of the strongest flavors of all the vegetables I know! To the right there are green onions, which are also called scallions or chives. These are good in soups and salads.

Now look at the different kinds of onions that there are!

Do you know which ones are the ones you eat?

FLOWER BUDS

Did you know that eating broccoli or cauliflower means that you are eating flowers? The white head of the caulifower is made up of little white flowers. We can eat them raw in salads or cooked in various dishes. I like them best when they are still raw because they are extremely crunchy! The little green buds of the broccoli plant are also delicious to eat either raw or cooked. What other flowers do you eat?

FRUIT

Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and pumpkins are plant fruits that we eat. Fruit vegetables grow on vines or on separate plants. Tomatoes are smooth, round, and juicy with a slightly acidic taste. They are green at first and become red, orange, or yellow when they ripen.

There are many different kinds of peppers and all of them can be sweet, mild, or spicy. Like the tomato, they are green when they are young and change color at maturity. Cucumbers can be used to make yummy pickles or eaten raw in a salad.

Pumpkins are used to make pies, breads, and cookies. Most importantly, pumpkins ripen in the fall just before Halloween so that we can carve scary faces into them!

LEAVES

The tasty leaf plants that we eat can be eaten raw or cooked, depending on what our taste buds crave.

Lettuce, parsley, and basil are usually eaten raw in a salad. Cabbage and spinach are usually cooked before eating.

Some leaf plants like spinach have loose leaves. But have you ever noticed that the leaves of a cabbage head are packed very tightly next to each other? Look at these cabbage heads and how they are round like soccer balls.

Now look at all the different kinds of pretty leaf vegetables!

ROOTS

If you are eating carrots, sweet potatoes, turnips, or beets, you are eating roots!

How did these roots get so fat? It is because the plant ends up taking in more food than it can use, and so it stores the extra food in its roots. Then these roots get bigger and bigger until we pull them up and eat them!

Rabbits like carrots too. They can make home gardeners and farmers very angry since they often steal carrots before we get a chance to pull them out of the ground.

SEEDS

When you eat peas, kidney beans, lima beans,

or sweet corn, you are eating the plant's seeds. They can be eaten both dried or fresh depending on how you like them. Do you know what kind of beans are in this picture?

Corn is everybody's favorite. It can be made into bread, popcorn, or cooking oils. My favorite is corn on the cob with a warm pad of butter melting on it! (Note: Each corn kernel is actually a whole fruit. Learn more about corn as a fruit!)

STEMS AND STALKS

The stems and stalks of a plant support its leaves, flowers, and fruits.

We eat the crispy celery stalk and the stem of the asparagus plant. Celery sticks are a yummy snack, especially if they are eaten with peanut butter! Look at the picture to see how green the celery stem is!

When green asparagus stems come through the ground, they are cut just below the top of the soil. Here is a picture of asparagus stems that have just been freshly cut and are now bunched up for sale at the grocery store.

TUBERS

Tubers, like bulbs and roots, grow underground. When you are eating a potato, you are eating a tuber.

Have you ever seen a potato looking at you?

The spots on a potato are called eyes.

They are actually undeveloped buds where new plants can grow from.

So if we wanted to grow more potato plants, we could cut a big potato into small pieces and plant the pieces that have at least one eye. We would not have to buy new seeds.

How many eyes do you see on this potato?

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