Onions - Sweet

Sweet onions are a great spring crop, adding some tasty sweet variety to our early shares. We grow a couple of varieties, but mostly rely on the famous Walla Walla sweet onion.

Cooking Tips

As the name suggests, these onions are much sweeter than your typical white or yellow storage onion. They can be used in any recipe calling for onion, but try using them in recipes that will let their flavor shine through. For true onion lovers, they can be sliced and eaten raw on salads and sandwiches. Nothing tastes better than sweet onion rings, or use them in stir-fries, stews, pastas, or on pizza. Although less than other onions, these could still make you cry when you cut them if you're not careful. Burning a candle near the cutting board or refrigerating the onion beforehand will help, or you can cut the onion under running water.

Storage Tips

These onions will not store as well as some others, and are best used relatively fresh. That said, they should be fine in your refrigerator for a week or two if kept dry. Store them in a bag to prevent their aroma from affecting other vegetables in the fridge.

Nutrition

Onions are believed to ward off colds, fight heart disease and diabetes, lower cholesterol and help prevent osteoporosis. The flavonoid quercetin contributes significantly to these effects, plus they are high in other antioxidants. Their medicinal effects will be best if you enjoy your onions raw or lightly cooked.

History

Onions are in the lily family, along with garlic, leeks, and shallots, and are one of the oldest crops cultivated by humans. Most of our cultivated varieties originated in West Asia, but other onion varieties were native to the Americas, where they were eaten by Native Americans. Onions were extremely important in ancient Egypt, where they were endowed with religious qualities. Onions were often placed in Egyptian tombs, where it was believed that their smell would bring back the dead.

Field Notes

Many of our sweet onions are planted in October and over winter in the field. We plant some more of the same varieties the following spring to be given out a bit later in the season.