4/03/2014

Toast Thursday Trouble Presents Today's Short Story

A Green Movement: A Short History of SWEET ONION

The onion is a member of the pungent Allium genus of the lily family, which also includes garlic, leeks, shallots, scallions, andchives. Most commercially-grown sweet onions are of the common or seed (A. cepa) variety.

The word onion comes to us from the Latin unio (meaning large pearl), which in Middle English became unyon. The bustling city of Chicago was named for a variety of onion the Native American Indians called chicago (A. canadense).

The onion was considered as valuable as gold in the Middle Ages. It has long been a symbol of eternity due to its structural composition of layers within layers which form a sphere.

The onion has amazingly been the focus of some mighty strange legislation over the years. For example, in Nacogdoches, Texas, it's against the law for "young women" to indulge in any raw onions after 6 pm. It is doubtful this law has been enforced in quite some time.

Sweet onion varieties have been traced back to a packet of seeds from the Canary Islands which were shipped to South Texas in 1898.. The sweet onion crop was an instant success.

-Mr. M&M



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