Harvest Time and a Party for Walla Walla Sweet Onions

I'm Susan Allen welcome to Washington Ag Today. Our designated state vegetable is so special, that it has it's own festival . Here's Kathy Fry-Trommaid Director of Marketing for Walla Walla Sweet Onions on their upcoming Walla Walla Sweet Onion Festival June 18th -19th

It's our 32nd annual in downtown Walla Walla in 3rd and Main, we will have chef demonsations coming from 5 different great chefs this year on Saturday and Sunday both we will have live music all weekend long and an awesome onion eating contest.

The onion made it's way to Walla Walla around 1900 when Peter Pieri a French soldier who settled in the area, brought a sweet onion seed from the island of Corsica with him to the mild valley. Today only around 20 growers cultivate the Sweets on 500 acres with an average yield of 650 50-pound units per acre. Harvesting the sweets begins in mid-June and continues until mid-August. This onion that is 95 percent water and has only 60 calories is so perisable (we call them precious) that it isn't exported overseas. The mild taste of a Walla Walla Sweet Onion is not due to sugar, but rather a low sulphur content, which is half of an ordinary yellow onion.

So you better get this delicacy grown only in the eastern corner of the state while you can.

.