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Walla Walla Sweet Onion Festival in Walla Walla
The Walla Walla Sweet Onion Festival is a July celebration of Washington's official state vegetable, the Walla Walla sweet onion, a variety developed over generations by the region's Italian immigrant farming community. The festival features an onion-eating contest, chef cook-offs featuring onion-based dishes, farmers market vendors, and other onion-themed food and activities.
The Walla Walla sweet onion's origin traces to a specific historical moment more than a century ago, when a French soldier named Peter Pieri, stationed on the Mediterranean island of Corsica off the west coast of Italy, found an Italian sweet onion seed and brought it back with him to the Walla Walla Valley in southeastern Washington.