Vegetable or fruit?

[genlock]

FRENCHTOWN, Mont. – Police say a Montana woman fended off a bear attack with an unlikely weapon — a zucchini.

Missoula County Sheriff's Lt. Rich Maricelli says a 200-pound black bear attacked one of the woman's dogs just after midnight Wednesday on the back porch of her home about 15 miles west of Missoula.

When the woman, whom police did not name, tried to separate the animals, the bear bit her in the leg.

Maricelli says the woman reached for the nearest object at hand on the porch's railing — a large zucchini that she had harvested from her garden.

The woman flung the vegetable at the bear, striking it and forcing it to flee.

Maricelli says the woman did not need medical attention. Wildlife officials were trying to locate the bear on Thursday.

[genlock]

WIKI sez:

"The zucchini (pronounced /zʊˈkiːni/) or courgette (/kʊǝˈʒɛt/ or [kɔːˈʒɛt]) is a small summer squash. Along with some other squashes, it belongs to the species Cucurbita pepo. Zucchini is the more common name in North America, Australia, Germany and Italy (zucchina/e), while courgette is more commonly used in the United Kingdom, Greece, New Zealand, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and South Africa. Zucchini can be yellow, green or light green, and generally have a similar shape to a ridged cucumber, though a few cultivars are available that produce round or bottle-shaped fruit.

In a culinary context, zucchini is treated as a vegetable, which means it is usually cooked and presented as a savory dish or accompaniment. Botanically, however, the zucchini is an immature fruit, being the swollen ovary of the female zucchini flower."

As a weapon it is therefore a fruit.