The Biggest Onion Statue in the World is Coming to Weslaco

6 hours ago 4

WESLACO, Texas – The City of Weslaco is to receive a giant statue of the Texas 1015 Sweet Onion, thanks to the Texas International Produce Association.

According to TIPA it will be the largest onion statue in the world.

The Texas 1015 Sweet Onion was created in Weslaco by Texas A&M horticulture professor Leonard Pike in about 1985 and is known for being a sweet and large onion. It is celebrated in the Rio Grande Valley through the Texas Onion Fest, which takes place in Weslaco each year.

Details of the project were unveiled by Barbara Jean Garza, president and CEO of the Weslaco Area Chamber of Commerce, at a recent meeting of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council.

Garza said bringing a monument of the Texas 1015 Sweet Onion to Weslaco would bring history to the community on how it became the state’s official vegetable. She said the base of the statue will include history about the Texas 1015 Sweet Onion, including information about Pike and Texas A&M’s involvement in the creation of the onion. Garza said she hopes the monument can be erected at the corner of Texas Boulevard and West Railroad Street on land owned by the LRGVDC.

“Not only will this be something as a beautification and exciting piece to bring to Weslaco, but we also bring this as an educational piece to the Rio Grande Valley,” Garza said. “So, very exciting for us.”

Garza said the Chamber, along with TIPA, will be covering all costs and future maintenance for the statue.

According to Pittman & Davis, a Valley-based food gift company, the Texas 1015 variety of onion is so named because it is generally planted on or around October 15.

“That means they’re ready to harvest during the spring and through the summer – just in time to add full-bodied, mouthwatering flavor to your hamburgers and steaks during barbecue season,” the company states.

“Around the size of a softball, Sweet Texas 1015 onions average around 10-15 centimeters in diameter, and are globular to slightly oblong in shape. Like many sweet onions, the bulb is encased in a thin, yellow, papery skin with a flaky, dry, and brittle.

“Underneath the skin, the off-white flesh is juicy, crisp, and firm with many layers of even rings that can be easily separated (this makes them a popular choice for making jumbo-sized onions rings). The flesh has a mild, sweet flavor and succulent, tender texture.”

Weslaco Mayor Adrian Gonzalez said TIPA called the statue the “biggest onion [statue] in the world” when the idea was proposed to him.

“We can go in the books as having the biggest onion in Weslaco,” Gonzalez quipped. “We do celebrate the Onion Fest. It is something awesome that we can provide for our city and our constituents at the same time.”

The world’s biggest onion-shaped structure currently sits at 21.32 feet in Romania. President of the Texas International Produce Association, Dante Galeazzi said they plan to go above that height. The Association is in the process of identifying artists from the Rio Grande Valley to work on the structure.

“Our target is to make this statue not only a prominent piece of Weslaco,” Galeazzi said. “But to make it the world’s largest onion, as we help identify the importance and the role that the Texas 1015 Sweet Onion has played, not just in Weslaco, not just in the community, not just in the state, but in the minds and taste buds of all Americans.”