ONIONS

ONIONS, apparently native to Asia, were unknown to the American Indians. Early colonists first brought them to America. Wethersfield, Connecticut, soon became a noted onion-growing center. Records show that Wethersfield was shipping onions as early as 1710. A century later it was sending out a million bunches annually. Nonetheless, as onion culture spread to all parts of the country, Wethersfield lost its preeminence. Soon after 1900 extensive production of Bermuda onions began in Texas, California, and Louisiana. By 2002 Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and California had come to lead the United States in onion production. In that year the American onion crop was worth between $3 billion and $4 billion retail.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Benes, Peter. Two Towns, Concord and Wethersfield: A Comparative Exhibition of Regional Culture, 1635–1850. Concord, Mass.: Concord Antiquarian Museum, 1982.

Main, Jackson Turner. Society and Economy in Colonial Connecticut. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985.

Alvin F. Harlow/A. E.

See also Agriculture; Food and Cuisines.