Upshur County Sweets!

Mirror Photo KEN GARRIS shows a few of the “Spanish-style yellow onions” he grew this spring on five acres off FM 49. He estimated that he planted 44,000 to 48,000 of the sweet onions this year.

Upshur County Sweets! That’s a name which implies “the sweet smell of success!” That’s an intriguing name for an onion new to the area, which grower Ken Garris said rivals Vidalia and Noonday onions in flavor.

Garris, who with his wife Kristy moved to Upshur County about six years ago, planted five acres of the “yellow Spanish-style sweet onion” on his farm on FM 49 this spring. That’s about 44,000 to 48,000 plants, he said. Garris expects them to be ready to be harvested in about two weeks, and they will be sold to individuals, restaurants, and at produce stands in the area.

Mrs. Garris said they will sell the onions in 5-, 10-, or 50-pound bags. They will have other produce as well, including purple-hull peas, pinto beans, both red and yellow watermelons, cantaloupes and blackberries.

Garris works for Hunt Oil Company, but has a degree in agronomy.

He said he hopes within a few years to have a full-fledged truck patch. He said he was told by an agriculture agent that he already is the largest row-crop farmer in these parts.

“I’ve been experimenting with these onions for a few years,” he said. Garris said he was introduced to the “sweet, Spanish-type yellow onion” through the Vidalia Onion Association. Vidalia onions are grown in Georgia, and are a white, sweet onion. They are rivalled by the Noonday onions, a white sweet onion grown near Tyler.

He said that in taste tests he conducted with friends last year, comparing Upshur County Sweets to Vidalia and Noonday onions, they were amazed at the fine flavor of his onions. As far as he knows, he is the only one growing the variety in this area.

When he was trying to come up with a unique name for his onions, a friend suggested “Upshur County Sweets,” which Garris thought had a nice sound to it.

With prices at the Dallas produce market reaching $100 for a 50-pound bag on Wednesday, and prices at local grocers in the Stratosphere, Garris said he was told he “has a gold mine.”

He said that the market price in Dallas will help determine what he will charge for his onions. When it comes time to harvest, he will use a sweet-potato digger.

He said he plans to save some of the seeds from this year’s crop for next year.

In 2008, he plans to plant three times as many onions. Word about the onions has gotten around. Mrs. Garris said that people who see her at Wal-Mart ask “are you the onion lady?”

“I was born a Gardner,” she quipped (her maiden name was Gardner), so she came by her green thumb naturally. She is proud of her blackberries.

Garris said that his orchard includes “Indian peach trees,” used for pickling. He also has a “fruit cocktail tree,” whose fruit includes, through grafting, two kinds of plums, nectarines, apricots and peaches.

He and his wife lived in the central Missouri Ozarks for years before they relocated to Upshur County. He said he had a long one-way commute to work then. He said they choose this area because they have a young school-age daughter and liked what they learned about the Harmony school system. For more information, call 903-725-2244.

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