The Onion With Its Own Festival

The Grand Festival of the Calçotada is celebrated on the last Sunday of January, and the city of Valls, Spain, throws the biggest party of all; here you’ll find parades, barbecues, cooking competitions and eating contests. And what’s all this revelry in aid of? A much loved onion.

The ‘calçot’ is a white onion with a long stem and a distinctive sweet flavor. Local farmer Dalmaci Clofent describes it as tasting like a cloud from heaven.

So where did these unique vegetables spring from? Local legend says that in the 19th Century, a farmer called Xat Benaiges decided to do things a little differently. He planted a crop of ordinary white onions, but he didn’t let them grow in the usual way. Instead, he kept adding layers of soil above them, which meant they grew tall, white, tender stems.

These exceptional onions were worth the wait.

0:00 Intro
0:46 The Festival
1:47 The Perfect Calçot
3:04 Eating Competition

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This story is a part of our Explore series.

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