The Sweet Spot

When you think of the most inviting aromas of summer, your mind probably goes to flowers in bloom, the forest after a rain, or freshly mowed grass. With all those great smells, you may not typically think of the smell of onions. But walking through a Walla Walla field in July that is practically buzzing with harvest workers, the aroma of onions is hypnotic: unmistakably sweet and surprisingly pleasant.

Luke Hamada and his family have been growing Walla Walla’s signature sweet onions for decades here, in small fields close to any of the dozen or so rivers and streams that meander through the valley. Walla Walla Sweet Onions are renowned around the world for their aroma, sweetness, and mild flavor, and it all starts right here in fields like this.

"What makes the difference is the soil around here in the area," Hamada said when Kristi Gorensen and the Washington Grown TV crew visited in Season 12. "When we search for fields, we usually look for fields that are near the rivers, because that is usually land that has been flooded over the years. We find that those fields raise better onions than others. My uncle always told us, ‘The places where it’s harder to make a crop are the places where you’ll end up growing nice onions.’"

Luke and his team at Pacific Agra Farms have certainly succeeded in growing nice onions. Pacific Agra Farms is one of approximately 20 growers that cultivate Walla Walla Sweet Onions, the official state vegetable of Washington. Walla Walla Sweets are special for several reasons. Their signature sweet flavor comes from the soil of Walla Walla Valley – its low sulfur content means the onions develop less pyruvic acid (the chemical that makes onions pungent). All that natural chemistry results in a milder, less sharp taste that goes perfectly on a burger or fried as an onion ring. And because they have a higher water content than most onions, they are relatively short–lived, meaning consumers have to snag them while they’re in season. During their peak season in summer, they’re shipped around the country, where a hungry public happily pays a premium for Walla Walla Sweets.

The other peculiarity of Walla Walla Sweet Onions is that they have to be harvested by hand due to their delicate flesh and large size. That explains why there were nearly 50 seasonal farm laborers in the field when the Washington Grown TV crew visited. They were bringing in the harvest by hand, one onion at a time.

"Without the people we have working here, we couldn’t do this," said Hamada. "They trim off the tops and the roots, put them into rows, then load them into bins, and we take them off into storage for curing. (The workforce) is very important."

Hamada and his team are vocal proponents of drip irrigation — a method by which water is delivered directly to the roots of the plant through a network of tubes that lie on the soil. Tiny holes in those tubes drip water onto the soil in exactly the right place, minimizing water waste and ensuring that the plants get just what they need.

"When we water (with drip irrigation), it goes directly into the soil, so we save a lot on evaporation. When you’re watering overhead, you can lose a lot of water, especially on the really hot days we can have around here sometimes," said Hamada, kneeling down to show Gorensen an irrigation line. "Keeping as much water as possible in the rivers is really important for all the other parts of the ecosystem — for the fish and for the other things that people depend on. So the more that we can conserve … we’re just trying to do our part."

The next time you pick up a Walla Walla Sweet Onion, take a big whiff of its pleasant aroma and think of all the hard work and precision farming that went into growing it!