Vegetables
Senior 1 · Agriculture
Vegetables
Lesson 1 of 5
22 min
Let's begin
Walk through a market in Bugesera or Kimironko and you will see heaps of tomatoes, carrots, onions, cabbages, green peppers, eggplants and bunches of amaranth. Many Rwandan families also keep a small kitchen garden (akarima k'igikoni) beside the house, so that fresh greens are always within reach of the cooking pot.
Vegetables grow fast, earn money on a small piece of land and protect health. Before learning how to grow them, you need to know what counts as a vegetable and how the many kinds are grouped, because the group a vegetable belongs to tells you a lot about how to grow it.
A vegetable is an edible, usually soft (non-woody) part of a plant, such as a leaf, stem, root, bulb, flower, fruit or seed, that is eaten raw or cooked, usually as part of the main meal or in a salad. Growing vegetables is called olericulture, a branch of horticulture.
Some vegetables are fruits in the botanical sense (they carry seeds), for example tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and pumpkins. They are still called vegetables because of the way they are eaten: in savoury dishes, not as a sweet snack or dessert.
| Part eaten | Examples |
|---|---|
| Leaves | Cabbage, amaranth, kale (sukuma wiki), spinach, lettuce, cassava leaves |
| Stems and leaf stalks | Celery, leek |
| Roots | Carrot, beetroot, radish |
| Bulbs | Onion, garlic |
| Flowers (flower heads) | Cauliflower, broccoli |
| Fruits | Tomato, eggplant, sweet pepper, chilli, cucumber, pumpkin, courgette |
| Seeds and pods | French beans, garden peas |
| Family | Members |
|---|---|
| Nightshade family (Solanaceae) | Tomato, eggplant, sweet pepper, chilli (and the Irish potato) |
| Cabbage family (Brassicaceae or Cruciferae) | Cabbage, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, radish |
| Gourd family (Cucurbitaceae) | Pumpkin, cucumber, courgette, watermelon |
| Onion family (Alliaceae) | Onion, garlic, leek |
| Carrot family (Apiaceae) | Carrot, celery |
| Amaranth family (Amaranthaceae) | Amaranth, spinach, beetroot |
| Legume family (Fabaceae) | French beans, garden peas |
Members of one family often share the same pests and diseases. That is why a farmer should not follow tomatoes with eggplants or peppers on the same plot, but rotate between families.
Question: Classify (a) cabbage and (b) carrot by all five criteria.
| Criterion | (a) Cabbage | (b) Carrot |
|---|---|---|
| Part eaten | Leaves (the head) | Root |
| Family | Brassicaceae | Apiaceae |
| Life cycle | Biennial (harvested in the first season) | Biennial (harvested in the first season) |
| Establishment | Transplanted | Direct-seeded |
| Climate | Cool-season | Cool-season |
Tip
Memory hook for the five criteria: "Part, Family, Life, Planting, Climate", or P-F-L-P-C: "Please Feed Little People Carrots."
Exam technique: when asked to classify, always name the criterion you are using ("by part eaten, the onion is a bulb vegetable"). Mixing criteria in one list loses marks.
Define a vegetable.
Solution: A vegetable is an edible, usually soft part of a plant (leaf, stem, root, bulb, flower, fruit or seed) eaten raw or cooked, usually as part of the main meal or in a salad.
Give three reasons why a family in Rwanda should keep a kitchen garden.
Solution: Any three: it supplies vitamins and minerals every day; it helps prevent child malnutrition and anaemia; it saves money spent on buying vegetables; surplus can be sold; it uses only a small piece of land near the house.
Name the part eaten in (a) cauliflower, (b) onion, (c) eggplant.
Solution: (a) Flower head. (b) Bulb. (c) Fruit.
Why is it unwise to plant peppers on a plot where tomatoes grew last season?
Solution: Both belong to the nightshade family (Solanaceae), so they share pests and soil-borne diseases, such as bacterial wilt, which build up in the soil. Rotate to a crop from another family.
Why are carrots sown directly rather than transplanted?
Solution: The edible part is the taproot. Transplanting damages the root tip, giving forked, twisted or stunted carrots.
Summary
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
