Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Onion growers may not be King anymore, but they're still planting around these parts

You want any trans-fats with those 'rings ?
I remember reading that during the early part of the 20th century (early 1900s), Laredo produced about 75 per cent of all the bermuda onions in the United States.  Rail cars loaded with onions departed Laredo regularly headed for Northern markets. Over a hundred years later, at least we can say that onions are still being grown in our general vicinity. ProduceNews.com had the following piece about the still-substantial numbers of Texas-grown onions.

Last year, Texas farmers planted 11,313 acres of red, white and yellow onions in the Lone Star State, 8,782 in the Lower Valley and Coastal Bend area sand 2,581acres in the Laredo and Winter Garden area. This year that total is up to 2,827 acres. The state totals for this year are also up, at 13,064 acres with 10,237 of those in the Lower Valley 
The totals do not include acreage from U.S.-owned farms across the border in northern Mexico or partner organizations in that country that ship most of their product through Texas, volume which is often accounted for in Texas onion production totals.

No wonder Sonic has such good-tasting onion rings. I'm begining to think the reason that they're so good is because they're probably home-grown. I name onions one of the "prides" of Laredo.

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