Stop throwing out bad onions.

Introducing a new variety of sweet onion that is sweeter and lasts up to 8 months before going bad.

(PRWEB) August 8, 2003 -- A new sweet onion has hit the market and its crisper, sweeter and lasts longer than any other sweet onion!

Crisp, sweet and a good keeper - three goals, three scores, all in one onion - make the newest sweet onion a true Wonderful Washington Sweet Onion.

Paul and Mike Hatch of Pasco are very familiar with Walla Walla Sweets, both their good points and their bad. The two have eaten quite a few of the sweet onions since they began farming in Franklin County in 1975.

And every year they hear the same complaint: Sweets don't keep.

"None - until now - of the sweet onions store well. The problem with sweet onions is,
the sugar shortens their shelf life," explained Roy Hillman, manager of Hatco Packing.

Hillman worked with the Hatch brothers during nearly five years of crossing and testing and
tasting that went into developing the Wonderful Washington Sweet hybrid onion.

"We knew we had it nailed last season," Hillman said. "The flavor, the shape, the crispness were all there. All we needed was to test how they stored." Turns out they had that nailed, too.
Mike Hatch had a 50-pound mesh sack of the Wonderful Washington Sweets hanging in his garage all last winter.

"They were fine, the last ones were just as firm and sweet as when they were dug," Hillman said.

This spring there was enough seed to plant 285 acres, which are now being harvested, packed and trucked to regional Food Pavilion and Albertsons stores. The onions are also available,off the company's Web site, www.hatcopacking.com.

Besides a keeping onion, the Hatches wanted a sweet onion with the classic onion globe shape -
Walla Walla Sweets, like Vidalias, are "flat" onions.

Crispness was a factor, too. "Pick up a Walla Walla Sweet, press your thumb and fingers around the neck and you'll feel it give. They're soft and squishy," Hillman said.

In contrast, the Wonderful Washington Sweet Onion is hard and unyielding.

The problem, he explained, is the high water content of the Walla Walla Sweet. It has bigger cells - to hold the water - so it has a lower ratio of solids to moisture. That makes for a softer onion, more prone to bruising. The Wonderful Washington Sweet Onion, Hillman said, is a dense-celled onion with lots of solids and less water than Walla Walla Sweets.

"More solids means more sugar and a 'tougher' onion," he said. Compared side by side with a Walla Walla Sweet, a Wonderful Washington Sweet Onion had a milder aroma, a sweeter flavor with a negligible oniony after bite, thinner rings,
and it didn't leave a lingering onion smell on the fingers.

All definite pluses.

To keep Wonderful Washington Sweets at their best, they're packed in 10- and 40-pound cardboard boxes, not sacks. Sweet onions aren't built to have a lot of weight on them and don't take a lot of abuse, Hillman explained. The box supports them during shipping and prevents bruising.

At home, if you're not going to eat them right away, hang them up in a mesh sack in a well-ventilated, dry and dark area; basements are ideal.

Under optimum storage conditions, they'll keep up to six to eight months. Someplace like the coast or the Eastern seaboard, where it's warm and humid, two to 4 months is realistic," said Barry Long of Baker Produce..

Long explained that the sweetness of a Wonderful Washington Sweet Onion is bred in. It can be grown anywhere conditions are right for onions, and the seed will still produce sweet, crisp, long-keeping onions.

Currently, harvest for Wonderful Washington Sweet Onions began in July, and this year Long expects the onions will be available through September - "Unless we run out."

For more information about the new Wonderful Washington Sweet Onion visit their website http://www.hatcopacking.com.

Roy Hillman
Hatco Packing
509-547-4722

Barry Long
Baker Produce
509-586-6174

Bob Bishop
Webmaster
509-943-4723