A Sweet Tradition: Whitman Sends Walla Walla Sweet Onions to New Students
Every year, new Whitties are welcomed with one of Walla Walla’s favorite “treats”
By Heidi Pitts ’01
Each August, a new incoming class begins their four-year Whitman College experience. But even before arriving in Walla Walla, they’ve already gotten a taste of one of the area’s signature delights: the Walla Walla Sweet Onion.
A Truly Whitman Tradition
In a practice that dates back to 1992, each incoming student is mailed a box of freshly harvested onions in July. Claire Evans ’96, who was in the first Whitman class to receive this gift, recalls her surprise upon opening the package.
“Here was this shoebox-sized white box. I had no idea what it was, and then I opened it and there were onions!” says Evans, who now works as the college's Senior Associate Director of Annual Giving. “It was such an astonishing gift—a little quirky, for sure, but in a good way, which is very Whitman-esque.”
Twenty-seven years later as her daughter became a Whitman student, Evans kept the onion mailing a secret. “I was so excited for her and wanted her to have that moment of surprise as well!”
When her daughter’s box arrived, Evans immediately noticed a few big changes had been made over the decades. The current mailing includes additional treats such as onion stickers, recipes and info cards with facts about Walla Walla and sweet onions.
Seed To Student
One thing that has stayed the same is the source: Locati Farms, a fourth-generation family farm that has been at the forefront of sweet onion production since 1905.
“The onions are kind of a welcoming gift from the Walla Walla community to the new students, and we hope they have a good time while they’re here. A ‘sweet’ time,” says farm owner Michael J. Locati.
Sweet onions are seeded in winter, transplanted to the field in early spring and harvested by hand in midsummer, as they have been for over a hundred years. This gentle process prevents bruising and ensures Locati’s sweet onions maintain their high standard of quality.
The onions then move to a state-of-the-art curing and packing facility at Walla Walla River Packing and Storage. Nearly 400 boxes, each containing six sweet onions, are packed for Whitman College.
Linda Marshall, Whitman’s Printing and Mailing Supervisor, says it takes two large trucks to bring the boxes to campus. Over the next several days, the packing room fills with the fragrance of onions as Marshall and other college staff open every single box to add the stickers and other onion-themed items along with a letter from Vice President for Admissions & Financial Aid Adam Miller.
As the boxes are sealed, Marshall delivers them in batches to the Walla Walla Post Office and the onions begin their nationwide journeys.
Enter The Onion Bite Challenge
In just a few days, the boxes arrive on doorsteps and in mailboxes, and then the question becomes: What will these new Whitties do with their sweet onions?
Most, of course, will eat them. Onion jam, BOLTs (bacon, onion, lettuce and tomato sandwiches) and homemade onion rings are popular options.
But some will join a new piece that has been added as the tradition entered the social media age: the Onion Bite Challenge.
Started in 2022, brave students have tested the saying that you can eat a Walla Walla sweet onion like an apple. While a few manage only a tiny nibble, many discover they relish the pleasantly mild flavor.
Marian Sandoval Lemus ’23 did the Onion Bite Challenge in 2022 and admitted on Instagram that after taking a bite for the camera, she ended up eating the entire onion. “I am a true Walla Walla Sweet Onion fan!”
Making Sweet Memories
Long after the onions are eaten, they still connect alumni to their time in Walla Walla. Each year when Whitman posts about the onion mailing on social media, the nostalgic comments flood in.
Thank you for continuing this tradition! I loved it 20 years ago.
I am gonna send this picture to every friend who didn’t believe me when I told them I received a box of sweet onions from the college my first year!
I think it’s awesome that 29 years later they are still doing this!
Some have even held on to the actual boxes. “I got my Whitman onions in 1998, and I still have the box they came in! I used it to hold all my photos from my college days,” Meredith Gudger-Raines ’02 commented on an Instagram post in July 2023.
For each new class of Whitties, the gift of six sweet onions symbolizes the start of four years in Walla Walla that are sure to yield them many, many sweet memories.