The November to May calçot onion harvest in Spain is in full harvest mode in Valls, the onion’s original hometown. 

The Taragona township is basking in its famous onion riches despite Spain experiencing one of its worst droughts in two centuries.

Valls produces 10% of some 55 million nationwide calçot shoots, of which the bulk grows in the native Catalonia region.

But Valls still holds the crown as the birthplace of this flagrant produce and it enjoys a special heritage status in the market. People leave other growing areas and come here to sample farmhouse-style burned onions on open fireplaces at Valls.

Why call them Calçot?

History recounts two interesting details about the discoveries of the growth format, name and culinary habits attached to the onions. 

The first one is that farmers in Valls would pile up soil around the root to make the stem grow straight. This left the underground section tender and white, a secret to flavour that this species holds over bulbous types. The name Colçot is thus a corruption of the Catalán word for covering the bottom. 

It was also here in this town that a farmer in the 1800s burned some shoots by accident only to unearth “gold.” When he peeled the charred remains he discovered gooey stuff inside, a sumptuous feature that has made calçots quite popular. 

Cherished Gourmet Culture

Each onion season, it is not strange to find traffic headed from Barcelona to Valls and other production areas. Families and friends meet for special barbeques which earn each individual at least 25 burnt onions at a sitting. 

Today, the consumption of calçots is even a festival that attracts gourmet competitions across Spain, Ireland and the United States.

Related Product Range

These green scallions with their white slim bulbs have even spawned off a culinary product industry of their own. There are tomato sauces with calçot branding, ensuring that every paste lover partakes of it when buying the scallions.

In 2019 alone, Valls and other indigenous sources of the onions sold 15 million stems. The nationwide figure for that year is thought to be closer to quadruple that figure. 

Business for the onions and their related products has boomed in Madrid, Barcelona and Aragon, where exclusive restaurants thrive.

Spain exports calçots to France, Germany, Belgium and North America, and the list keeps stretching each year.