Walla Walla onions are a natural variety of sweet white onions. The original seed for the onions was brought to Walla Walla in the late 1800s by a French soldier named Peter Pieri, who obtained the seeds of an Italian variety of sweet onion while in Corsica. He planted the seeds, and the onions proved sweet, and impressively winter hardy, that Pieri and other farmers continued to harvest and plant the variety. Over time, the onion growers hand selected the seeds for the largest, sweetest, and roundest onions, until Walla Walla onions emerged as a known and sought after variety.

There are, of course, other varieties of sweet white onions; the Maui onion, famed on and off the island in potato chips as well as for own flavor, and the Georgia Vidalia. They too are wonders, but the Walla Walla is slightly more robust, keeps better, and has a flavor that is all its own. They are a "long day" onion, best suited to cold climates with long days in late spring and early summer. They are ideally suited to the rich farmland in the southeast corner of Washington state at the base of the Blue Mountains. The onion seeds are planted in late August, which means the roots have time to spread so that during spring and summer, the familiar large round white bulb has time to expand. That said, the harvest season, from June to late August restricts Walla Walla onion availability, and, while more robust than some, the Walla Walla still has a shelf life of a mere two to three weeks after harvest. That means you should buy them now—at your local Washington or Oregon groceries, or road side stands—and eat them while you can. If you're not fortunate enough to live in the Pacific Northwest, there are online Walla Walla onion sellers here .

You can, by the way, freeze onions quite easily. The two basic methods are to either very very lightly saute them in olive oil or butter, just barely enough to warm them, then let them cool and place a cup or so in freezer-save plastic containers or bags. The other method is to get the onions as close to harvest as you can, take them home, peel them, chop them into the sizes you're most likely to use in cooking, and freeze them immediately. The raw freezing method absolutely depends on freezing the onions as soon after harvest as possible.

Walla Walla onions really are sweet enough to eat like an apple. They're at their best, in my opinon, when they've been cooked the least. I love Walla Walla onion rings, dipped in batter and fried very hot cottonseed oil just until the batter is a rich golden brown and crips, and the sweet onion inside is still slightly crunchy. They're famous as a giant slab on a hamburger, but don't overlook using quartered small onions in green salads, made into a fruit or tomato based salsa and relishes or served with tuna or salmon. They're super cut in chunks, brushed with olive oil and grilled. There are lots of recipes here and here.