Reviving a bill to tab onion the state vegetable

The Walla Walla sweet onion is vying for the state's top veggie status. Again.

State legislators resurrected the "onion bill," which would name the bulb, grown only in the Walla Walla Valley, as the state's official vegetable.

Like last year, a group of students plan to testify on its behalf at the Legislature. Only this time, the students won't be from Kirkland.

The onion bill had been a project of Kirkland Junior High teacher Toni Miller for three previous years. She and her students were instrumental in creating the bill. They lobbied legislators to sponsor it and they testified on its behalf in committee hearings.

They came close, with the measure passing the House but not the Senate.

Miller retired at the end of the school year, and she assumed that would be the end of the onion saga. She was wrong.

Alex Hansen, a seventh-grade teacher at Eatonville Middle School, and his students, are continuing the sweet-onion quest.

Sponsored by Rep. Maureen Walsh, R-Walla Walla, the current bill passed the House floor Feb. 14. It now moves to the Senate, where it will have a hearing Thursday in the Agriculture and Rural Economic Development committee.

Hansen and his students plan to speak on behalf of the onion at the upcoming hearing. Miller stepped out of retirement for a few days to help the class prepare and coach them through their practice speeches.

"I'm delighted they have taken it up," said Miller, who lives on Finn Hill. "These kids are really excited about it. I think it has a good chance of getting through this year."

In its previous bid for vegetable recognition, the onion faced stiff opposition from the Washington State Potato Commission, which lobbied against the bill.

It wasn't fair to give such an honor to the onion when potatoes are the biggest vegetable industry in the state, potato commissioners said.

But this year, the potato advocates promised to be hands-off, said Walsh, who also was among a group of onion backers who pushed to get the bill passed last year.

For Walsh, passing the bill would also be a fitting tribute to her late husband, Kelly, whose Walla Walla Sweet Onion Sausages are well-known in their home town.

Kelly Walsh, who died in April, sold the onion-flavored meat at local farmer's markets and cooked up heaps of the sausages for the Kirkland students when they visited Olympia last year.

"He made the best Walla Walla Sweet Onion Sausages," Walsh said. "He was working on building our restaurant, Onion World. It was sort of his dream to do that."

Rachel Tuinstra: 206-515-5637 or rtuinstra@seattletimes.com