Ask Professor Produce

Help settle a bet between friends, Professor. Strawberries aren't really berries at all, are they? -Nina, the Internet

Wow, Nina, you make the kind of bets the Professor loves to get in on. Right you are. Strawberries are neither berry nor fruit, technically speaking. What we call the "berry" is actually the enlarged receptacle of the plant's flower. Now if you want to offer your friend a chance to get even, go double-or-nothing on what kind of flower the strawberry is. Tip of the day: It happens to be a member of the rose family. Remember your buddy the Professor when you gather your winnings.

What's the origin of the donut peach? Is it really a peach? If so, why is it flat? -Bud, Minneapolis

In our American-consumer quest for uniformity in the grocery aisle, we've managed to narrow people's expectations of what a given fruit should and shouldn't look like. As a matter of fact, peaches were originally white flesh when they first arrived in Florida from Europe (in 1565, Florida, to be obnoxiously exact). It was only this century when peaches were hybridized into the tangy, yellow flesh that we all expect to find in our August fruit stands.

So in that light, flat is par for the course, especially for Chinese fruit. The so-called donut peach is a descendent of a Chinese variety, one among 700 different hybrids that the fruit-obsessed Chinese have created over the last millenium (indeed, the nectarine is simply a bald variety of peach). Flatter and smaller with white flesh and a slightly sunken center, this peach originally came to California in the 1800's along with the first, big wave of Chinese immigrants, but didn't get rediscovered in the U.S. specialty fruit markets until 1986. If you don't like the name, you can use one of these more interesting titles: the Saucer peach, Mutsu, Peento (from the original Chinese name pen tao), Chinese, or simply enough, the Flat peach.

We love watermelons at our house and look forward to summer all year long just so we can sit on the stoop and dig into a big organic melon. Wax poetic about watermelons, Professor. Tell us how lucky we are to have them! -Seedless in Seattle, the Internet

Your letter waxes quite poetically in and of itself, Seedless! But maybe we can let the poets wax poetic for themselves - here are a few tidbits of watermelon-inspired musings for you. Enjoy.

Enrico Caruso: "Watermelon - it's a good fruit. You eat, you drink, you wash your face."

Frances Trollope: "When I first tasted this fruit I thought it very vile stuff indeed, but before the end of the season we all learned to like it. When taken with claret and sugar it makes a delicious wine and water."

Mark Twain: "The true Southern watermelon is a boon apart, and not to be mentioned with commoner things. It is chief of this world's luxuries, king by the grace of God over all the fruits of the earth. When one has tasted it, he knows what the angels eat. It was not a Southern watermelon that Eve took; we know it because she repented." The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson

United States Department of Agriculture: "A two-cup serving of watermelon contains 80 calories, two grams of dietary fiber, 25% of the daily value of vitamin C, 20% of the daily value of vitamin A, 25 grams of sugar and 1 gram of protein."

Professor Produce: "Two cups? Of watermelon? I'd never insult an organic watermelon farmer by stopping at a stingy two cups!"

(Hats off to The Food Reference Website for helping with the obscure watermelon quotes!)