Pop Quiz! You’ll Never Guess These New Fruits

School is back in session and it is time for a pop quiz! But you're smart. You've got this! Our Summer gardens are now serving up some great harvest food. In school you learned all about the food groups and the food pyramid. The science was always changing and most of it didn't seem to make sense to me when I was in elementary school. But we'll clear this right up.

What was 4 food groups, quickly became 5. Then there was a food pyramid that had 5, sometimes 6 food groups. Now, depending which expert you are listening to, there are as many as 8 food groups. It seems too complicated. It also looks like some experts are trying to include all alternative/processed items, as food.

No wonder most Utahn's don't know their fruits and veggies apart!

Bet you can't guess all these fruits and veggies right! Ready? Here we go!

Do you have your guesses ready? I promise this is a harder game than you think it is. I got most of them right but I got at least 3 of them wrong.

Let's get started. You are guessing if each item is a Fruit or Vegetable.

Tomato and Cucumber-

Both fruits! They both grow on a vine so technically they are both fruits.....so that should clear up the next guesses...

Peas and Zucchini-

Again both are vine fruits. And to get REALLY technical, if you are only eating the peas out of the pod then you are eating from the seed category.  Is this confusing yet?

Next up

Peppers and Avocado-

This is crazy. How on earth are tangy peppers a fruit?

What about corn?

NO WAY!!!!! I've heard it argued that it is a starch or grain, but a fruit? Common!

According to Anne-Marie Walker, Corn, Zea mays, belongs to the Poaceae family, and while eaten sometimes as a vegetable and sometimes as a grain, it is actually classified by botanists as a fruit, as are tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and other squashes. THEY ARE ALL FRUIT??????

I've been living a LIE my whole life.

According to dictionary.com, a fruit is a plant's developed ovary that comes from a flower and contains one or multiple seeds. HUH?

So then what IS a veggie? The term vegetable is much broader—it refers to any part of a plant that's used for food, including the roots, tubers, stems, and leaves. Goodness gracious, let me try and make this simple.

Here are your main greens...all veggies.

When they told me to eat my greens, I was thinking broccoli, zucchini and artichokes. I was way off. Oh and Artichokes? They are flower buds so....a fruit? Nope. A vegetable. ??? I'm so confused.

So I have come to the conclusion that I need to make my own food groups and market the idea so we can simplify everything and not be confused all the time.

I think this would be easier.....

Salty or savory and green= veggie

And,  anything naturally sweet= fruit

Wait.....but where does that leave sweet potatoes and pumpkins????

Oy Vey. This may be harder than I thought. Just put both pumpkins and sweet potatoes in the veggie category....because I said so. It feels right.

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With fires, hurricanes and earthquakes all hitting in the last few weeks, there is a lot of doomsday talk going around. But there is no need to over react. There are a few things you can do to keep clam if you find yourself feeling stressed thinking about all of the natural disasters that have happened. 

Sometimes these are the questions that run through my brain: What if it's the end of the world? What if there is no food shipments coming to southern Utah anymore? What if what we have right now is all we are gonna get? So I have decided to be a little more prepared and I feel a lot better.

After prepping the basics for a while, I now feel prepared for survival. What if a major oil tanker crashes, explodes and takes out the freeway? I have stored away the basic necessities like food, water, medicine/herbs and toiletries, so my anxiety is subdued.

As a southern Utah community, we tend to be a little more prepared for disasters than the average US household. Whether it is because of the guidance of the predominate religion in the area or because we just collect people that love to prep, it is estimated that our area could last a couple of weeks without deliveries to our local grocery stores. That is phenomenal! Most places in the US wouldn't last a week on the items they have in the house. 2 weeks is a good start but that doesn't mean it will be comfortable or that some panic won't set in, but still good none the less.

Thinking about apocalyptic disasters can be scary.  If you are prepared then these type of thoughts don't mortify you....completely. You can start right now. Just start with some dried food and some water and you will start to feel better. Start small and make a list of foods that store well and stock up on water. Make sure to store any medicines that you can so you feel more prepared.

Here is a great list to get you started! Food storage for a year.

Take and store your vitamins, say your prayers, start getting the essentials in your home, and you will feel a lot better. Happy prepping!

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Are you ready for massive power outages and not being able to use the freeway?

You can be! Here is a list of the top 15 items you should have in your doomsday home survival kit.