Sweet Stuff At Walla Walla's Onion Festival

The town of Walla Walla will celebrate one of its most famous products, the Walla Walla Sweet Onion, with a daylong Harvest Fest on July 13.

The festival will have food booths (heavy on the onions, of course); games for kids; onion-recipe contests, music and more from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Fort Walla Walla Park.

The sweet-tasting, succulent onions have been grown for about a century around Walla Walla, since a French soldier brought the seeds from the Mediterranean island of Corsica. Local farmers liked the taste and the onion's winter hardiness.

The Walla Walla Sweet Onion now is protected by a federal marketing order, to protect the crop's reputation, which designates the Walla Walla Valley and part of northeast Oregon as the legal production area.

For more information on next month's Sweet Onion Harvest Fest, contact the chamber of commerce at 509-525-0850.

For brochures and onion recipes, contact the Walla Walla Sweet Onion Marketing Committee at 509-525-1031.