Record 2021 heatwave cooked Walla Walla sweet onions to mush – “It’s unprecedented. It’s just never that hot at the beginning of June.”
By Emry Dinman
3 August 2021
(The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin) – In June 2021, as the sun baked the ground, harvest began at Enriquez Farms, a midsized operation in Walla Walla specializing in the region’s famous sweet onions. Up to that point, the alliums had thrived in the warm weather, and Fernando Enriquez Sr., the elder of a father-son duo that manages the farm, was excited for the year’s crop.
“All of this field, it was beautiful onions,” Enriquez Sr. said. “But the sun, it really hit it.”
The next day, he walked out to his fields and discovered that the tops of the oversized onions, baked by record heat as high as 120 degrees, had begun to develop soft, pale blisters just beneath their papery skin.
Another day later, everything that had not already been harvested was ruined.
“There was nothing we could save,” he said, stepping over the husks of thousands of broken red and yellow onions left to dry out in the sun.
Heat hit some worse than others
The heat wave that blanketed the Northwest had an uneven impact on Walla Walla sweet onion growers, though none were unscathed.
“When the unprecedented 117, 120 degree heat hit, we didn’t know what it would do,” said Harry Hamada. […]
Onions tend to be resistant to heat, said Sarah McClure, owner of Walla Walla Organics.
“But you know what, 114 degree heat for days and days?” McClure said. “It was hard on them.”
McClure’s transplant onions were hit particularly hard, suffering from sunburn and a likely shorter shelf life. In addition to the damage, the onions never quite grew as large as they should have, she noted. […]
Some growers devastated
The sour-sweet smell of thousands of onions left to bake in the sun for weeks still fills the air at Enriquez Farms.
“We lost about 98% of our crop,” said Fernando Enriquez Jr. […]
“It’s unprecedented,” Enriquez Jr. said. “I was born and raised here in the valley, my parents have been in this valley for over 50 years, and it’s just never that hot at the beginning of June.”
Even this year’s seeds, which would have grown next year’s crop, were decimated. The pom-pom flower atop each onion plant should be filled to bursting with hundreds of seed pods, each of which should have around four seeds, Enriquez Sr. said. Not only were most of the seed pods desiccated and empty, those that remained had two or three seeds.
“We’re hoping that since Gov. Jay Inslee declared the drought emergency, the USDA will consider helping some of the growers,” Enriquez Jr. said. “I am hopeful.” [more]
