Strawberry Onions #WordlessWednesday

I know what you're asking (except, maybe, if you live, or have lived, in Florida).  What is a strawberry onion?

I was introduced to strawberry onions in March of 2013, when spouse and I visited a Florida farmers market in Tampa and discovered them.

We were leaving Florida to drive home to New York State and bought two of the onions.  After we got home and tried them,  I said something like "If I knew how good they tasted, I would have bought up the vendor's entire stock." It was the end of the season, too.  We lucked into them.

No, Strawberry Onions are not a cross between strawberries and onions. Nor do they taste like strawberries.  Rather, they are a mild variety of onion.  They grow in strawberry fields in the Plant City, Florida area, which is a major strawberry producing area. (Plant City is in the same county as Tampa).

At one time, strawberry farmers believed that planting these onions on the perimeter of the field would ward off insects.  That isn't true, alas, but the practice continues.

They don't get their taste from their strawberry neighbors, but they thrive on the water and fertilizer given to the strawberry plants.  They used to be grown at the perimeter of the strawberry fields but production is growing, thanks to a growing demand.

Some call them Florida's best kept secret. 

In 2020, we discovered we could mail order them, and did.  We have mail ordered them every year since.  The harvest begins in early February and stretches into mid to late March, depending.

You can get them at Parksdale Market in Plant City (I highly recommend their strawberry shortcake, by the way.  They are not cheap to mail order but it's a splurge.   

So mild.  Someone I know who is a produce expert thinks they are of the same variety as the famous Vidalia onions, which have their own distinct character because of the short days and the special soil where they are grown in Georgia.  Well, call this Florida's version.

This will give you a hint of their size.  It wasn't the biggest onion in the box, either.

And no, I'm not being paid to publicize their onions.  

 

Joining Sandee (if she will have me with my onion scented blog today) at her #WordlessWednesday.