For those of you who know me well, know I’m always exploring new ingredients to play with in the kitchen. So when my dad was raving about a Walla Walla sweet onion he and my mom recently discovered I knew it would be the next new thing I would be trying.

I’ve never had a Walla Walla sweet onion before. I guess that’s because I live in Colorado…not Washington. But after hearing my parents go on and on…AND ON about these fabulous sweet onions it became my mission de jour to track some down.

To my dismay I quickly discovered the odds were clearly stacked against me. Not only were these onions grown and available in…you guessed it, Walla Walla (obviously something I couldn’t grab at the local farmer’s market…because trust me, I searched the entire state of Colorado first for these gems) it was basically the end of their sweet onion season.

The harvest clock was ticking fast and I had to track down a farmer in Walla Walla who could ship me a box pronto! And not just any farmer, no, I only wanted the certified organic non-GMO variety.

It was easy finding a farmer that had a few onions left but they were not the organic non-GMO trophies I was after. When I finally found a farmer that grew organic non-GMO onions he reported sadly that they no longer had any left to ship, they were all out. Dang! But alas a gleam of luck for me…this farmer suggested one other farmer that grew organic non-GMO sweet onions (according to him the only other farmer that did). He just gave me the farmer’s name though and that was it. He basically said, “Call Dan”. I thought that rather odd of him but I didn’t want to pester him again with yet another annoying email. I could tell his patience was wearing thin with the desperate cook from Colorado. Nope I was left to seek out farmer-Dan and his sweet onions all on my own…well not entirely on my own, I did have Google and seriously how many farmer-Dan’s could there be in Walla Walla?

I had my work cut out for me.

Okay, right after I made another one of my super-duper-gigantor-sized cappuccinos I started my research. After a short while I began to feel like I was a resident of the Walla Walla farming community or some kind of stalking under-cover reporter. At one point I actually had a brief conversation with a local reporter. I needed those onions!

*My tenacity paid off*

By noon and after another fuel-fortified cappuccino I had located farmer-Dan…well actually I located his wife. And guess what? They only had one box left…just one 10 lb. box of onions left…and they were mine – BOOM!

*Success*

10 lbs. was more than I needed and the shipping costs where as much as the onions but I didn’t hesitate to pay the price. Sarah was such a lovely lady over the phone as she took my order. You could tell she was “good people” because she was so trusting. “I’ll just ship the onions and call you with the total” she said. They didn’t take credit cards so it was a trust shipment for sure. And then she said she wanted to throw in some merlot beans for me to try out as well from their farm.

One might wonder how anyone could be so enthusiastic about onions for crying out loud. Well, I really don’t know what to say about that except that I was truly excited about receiving that shipment of onions.   I’m a tad bit embarrassed to admit that I estimated the days it would take the shipment to arrive and I watched the calendar like a child counting down the days to Christmas.

They would arrive Friday, that much I knew. So I waited patiently (sort of) but when Friday rolled around I became a nuisance to the office manager each time I inquired about my shipment. “Did my onions arrive yet? Are you sure? Can you check again? What time does UPS usually arrive? It’s a good thing they like me…well I think they do but I could be wrong. I didn’t care, I just wanted my onions.

Ughhhhhh, I broke down shortly after 5 and called the UPS warehouse (yes, embarrassed to admit that as well). Yep, they were there in the “incorrect address” holding tank. You know what happened next right? Of course you do. With very little time before the warehouse closed for the weekend I made sure I drove out to pick up my onions.

“Who has onions shipped to them, why not just go to the store?” the lady behind the counter asked.

“JUST GIVE ME THE ONIONS LADY…JUST GIVE ME THE ONIONS!” was my response…in my head of course; out loud I just smiled and said nothing because when she retrieved the box of onions loose beans were spilling out all over the place. I knew they weren’t happy with my shipment or me. Of course before she would give me the box she had to tell me how much work it was to tape the box to save the poor beans from spilling.

“JUST GIVE ME THE ONIONS LADY…JUST GIVE ME THE ONIONS…WHO CARES ABOUT THE BEANS”…again in my head.

*I quietly signed for the onions and three merlot beans*

And then I drove home with these fabulous onions. Sitting in the seat next to me with the seat belt fastened nicely around the box I looked at them and smiled and thought “I have great plans for you…all ten pounds of you…ah hell, who am I kidding, I’m probably going to share most of you with my friends because they deserve to try you too and then shortly after that I’m probably going to write a blog post about you as well so please don’t disappoint me”.

I’ll say without a doubt, the Walla Walla sweet onions are probably the finest onions on the planet. Was it worth all of the trouble to get these onions? Absolutely! And I’ll do it again next year but this time I’ll order in plenty of time to get more throughout the season. I’ve used them in soups, pizzas, rice, couscous and quinoa dishes and trust me, you can taste the difference.

I promise to share recipes soon!

I am,
The Urban Mountaineer

(This post is especially for my parents whom I love so very much!)