VEGETABLES

Vegetables usually refer to herbaceous plants or parts of a plant which can be eaten raw or cooked. The edible parts of an herbaceous plant are many: stems, roots, flowers, and leaves.
They are important in a healthy diet because they provide vitamins, minerals, fibre and antioxidants.

Classification

Vegetables are usually classified on the basis of the part of the plant that is used for food into:

  • leafy green vegetables, e.g. spinach, lettuce, chicory, endive;
  • stem vegetables, e.g. celery, asparagus, chard, artichoke, cauliflower, broccoli rabe, broccoli;
  • root1 vegetables, e.g. beet, celeriac, carrot, radish, turnip;
  • bulb vegetables, e.g. garlic, onion, shallot, chives, leek;
  • tuber vegetables, e.g. potato, sweet potato, Jerusalem artichoke, cassava;
  • fruit-bearing1 vegetables, e.g. squash, pumpkin, cucumber, pepper, tomato, aubergine.

DO

1 What is the difference between roots and tubers?


MORE

1 We do not usually consider the fruits of a plant to be vegetables, except for fruits that are not very sweet. Tomatoes, squash, peppers, aubergines for example, are all fruits, but we usually refer to them as vegetables.


Cultivation requirements

Most vegetables are planted by seeding the fields where they are to be grown, but occasionally they are germinated in a nursery or greenhouse and transplanted as seedlings to the field.
Anyway, any type of vegetable has specific cultivation requirements. Most of them grow best in a fertile, well-drained soil with a loamy texture since sandy loam soils are easily worked and are quite productive. Moreover, all vegetables need a healthy amount of organic material in the soil they grow in. Organic material provides many of the nutrients that plants need to grow and thrive. It also “softens” the soil, makes it easier for the roots to spread through the soil, and acts like small sponges in the soil, favouring water retention.

Harvesting and storage

Each vegetable must be harvested at the right time. Depending on the crop, harvesting operations are usually mechanised in well-developed countries, but the practice of harvesting by hand is still employed in some areas or is used in conjunction with machine operations.
Postharvest storage is also important. It may require refrigerated facilities and be different depending on the crop: onions and potatoes can be stored in cool, dry and dark places for at least three months, while leafy vegetables should be stored for a short time in a cool place and in sealed containers to preserve moisture and vitamin C.