All About Onions

How many onions do we eat? While walking through town, I could smell onions grilling. That birthed the question of what kind of onion was being sacrificed. One estimate is that the average American consumes about twenty-two pounds of onions in various forms each year.

We grow the sweet Vidalia Onion in South Georgia, but they are not available year-round. However, common yellow onions are, and that is what I assume I smelled.

The number one grower of onions is not Georgia but the state of Washington, with 19.7 million tons last year. Right behind Washington are California and Oregon.

Georgia would be the grower of the least number of onions were it not for New York. Georgia is tied with New York state for last place.

The bag of yellow onions in the pantry is from Raleigh, NC, just onions, yellow onions.

A yellow onion is just a yellow onion, depending upon where it is grown.

We know about the Vidalia Onion, but the genetically identical Granex is grown in other places and known by other names.

People in the Northwest favor the Walla Walla onion, which has similar restrictions on botany, harvesting and geographic area. Some people are super loyal to the Texas Onion. Those are grown in the sandy soil of the Rio Grande River valley.

Onions form the backbone of many dishes: As slices on a burger or as the structure of grilled onions served in a white cheese sauce.

Onion dishes have their own names, such as the “Bloomin’ Onion” and “Cactus Blossom.”

What we forget, the sweet onion, regardless of where it is grown, used to be known as the Bermuda Onion.

This was a round, flattish onion with a low sulfur content. Sound familiar?

In the 1800’s and 1900’s, Bermuda was known as an onion producer rather than for mild weather and pink beaches. Onions were about the only export they had except for cedar lumber.

Today if you buy “Bermuda Onions,” they came from Texas or somewhere else. They are not genetically connected to either the Texas or Vidalia Sweet.

Another place where sweet onions are grown will call for a long flight as a culinary tourist.

The Maui Onion is grown on the island of Maui, Hawaii, way out there. This is also a Granex onion and sweeter because of very low sulfur soil.

They are not necessarily sweet for being grown on the slopes of a dormant volcano, Mount Haleakala, nor exclusively in the red volcanic soil.

The fact that they are grown in Hawaii at all is enough mystery to make them desirable. joenphillips@yahoo.com