Sweet onions

Sweet onion is a variety of onion that is not pungent. There are several varieties of sweet onion. Although all onions have sugar, sweet onions have a very low sulfur content as compared to typical onions. Also, the water content is comparatively very high. These differences emphasize the sweetness of the onion.

Origins in the Americas

American sweet onions appear to have originated in three places, all around the year 1900.

Nevada
Nevada's Mason Valley claims to grow the highest quality sweet onions in North America. The high desert soil born from volcanic activity is the primary source of nutrition needed to grow sweet onions, altough it's a long day sweet onion and lacks the flat shape of the Granex varieties such as Vidalia. The most popular sweet onion from Nevada is the Sweetie Sweet, available from September through January.

New Mexico
The Carzalia Sweet onion produced by Carzalia Valley Produce is known as the "True Summer Sweet onion". Carzalia Valley Produce established in 1918 near the small border town of Columbus, New Mexico, USA, by WR Johnson and Sons. Carzalia Valley Produce says they "try to keep pace of the ever-changing produce world."

Carzalia Valley Produce grows a wide variety of onions: yellow, red, white and the ever popular “Carzalia Sweet” onion. Carzalia sweet onions are available at retailers throughout the United States from May through September.

Texas
The Bermuda onion was first harvested in Texas in 1898, with seeds imported from Bermuda. The first harvest was sent primarily to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they were very well received, prompting Texas to increase the area used for growing the onion. The three main breeds grown in Texas around the turn of the century were the Yellow Bermuda, the White Bermuda, and the Crystal Wax.

Walla Walla
The Walla Walla Sweet Onion originated on the island of Corsica, off the west coast of Italy. A French soldier named Peter Pieri found an Italian sweet onion seed and brought it to the Walla Walla Valley around 1900.

Impressed by the new onion's winter hardiness, Pieri, and the Italian immigrant farmers who comprised much of Walla Walla's gardening industry, harvested the seed. The sweet onion developed over several generations through the process of carefully hand selecting onions from each year's crop, ensuring exceptional sweetness, jumbo size and round shape.

Sweetie Sweet Onion
The Sweetie Sweet is an exclusive variety sweet onion grown in the fertile soil of the Mason Valley in Yerington, Nevada. This is a true sweet onion that is trademarked to Peri & Sons Farms, Inc. The Sweetie Sweet onion can be found in marketplaces throughout the U.S. from September through the end of January.

Carzalia Sweet Onion
The Carzalia Sweet Onion is a variety of sweet onions grown in southern New Mexico. An extensive irrigation network, climate and fertile soil of southern New Mexico, combined to create one of the finest sweet onions available. A family has worked on this onion for generations.

Vidalia Onion
A Vidalia onion can be any one of several yellow Granex varieties but fresh onions can be labeled as a "Vidalia" onion only if grown in an exclusive 20-county production region in the state of Georgia as defined by both state Georgia and federal law United States Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). An advisory panel consisting of growers and industry researchers suggests seed varieties to the Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture each year. The varieties must first undergo rigorous testing procedures and then, after panel recommendation, be approved by the Commissioner.

Vidalia onions were first grown near Vidalia, Georgia in the early 1930s. However, they did not gain widespread recognition until the 1980s when a group of growers banded together to seek legal protection of the name and growing region. At that time, the Vidalia Onion Committee was formed to market and promote Vidalias nationwide.

Glennville Sweet Onion
The Glennville sweet onion, a competitor of the famous Vidalia onion, is grown in Tattnall County, in Glennville, Georgia which is next door to Toombs County.

Maui Onion
Maui Onion are one of the smaller varieties of sweet onions grown on the Hawaiian island of Maui. They are trademarked to Kula-grown onions. Maui onion fans claim that the fertile volcanic soil contributes to making these the very sweetest of all onion varieties, and that once peeled, they can be "eaten like apples".