Oso Sweet Winter Onions Celebrate Two Decades of Bringing Smiles to Hungry Americans
December 14, 2007
(San Francisco, Calif.) Back in 1989, Americans had a difficult time satisfying their cravings for sweet onions. The season was short - from spring to early summer - and outside of Georgia, where Vidalia's are grown, or Texas, home of the Texas 1015s, they were not easy to locate.
So when two onion brokers brought to market a sweet onion that onion lovers could enjoy all winter long, it was a rather novel idea.
Fortunately, they chose a spot at the foothills of the Andes Mountains in Chile, where the climate and soil were ideal for growing very sweet, mild, (think tearless) flavorful onions.
While America was weathering the cold and snow of winter it was summer and harvest time south of the equator. And the first Oso Sweet onions arrived on American shores.
Now we can enjoy sweet onions all year long, but the Oso Sweet - celebrating its 20th season and in markets from January through March - is the reigning king in the winter months.
They're the most consistent sweet onion available anytime of year, because the same team of dedicated agronomists who pioneered the Oso Sweet still watch over the growing of each onion. No other onion is pampered like an Oso Sweet, which is still shipped to stores around the country in sturdy wood crates.
According to health guru Dr. Andrew Weil, onions are one of eleven produce items "You don't have to buy organic." And a study by the Washington, D.C. based non-profit Environmental Working Group (EWG), lists onions as the "Most Consistently Clean" fruit or vegetable, with practically no pesticide residues.
FACT: The National Onion Association says that consumption of onions has practically doubled in the U.S. in the last 30 years, jumping from 11 pounds per person to 20-plus pounds per person. Sweet onions now represent almost 30% of that total, and growing.
|
