Ukiah's got an Onion Habit

For the two weeks prior to Thanksgiving, Oak Valley Nursery was the destination for Ukiahns needing to get their fix - their onion fix. The nursery sold 28,000 onion seedlings in three days to gardeners of all shapes and sizes, colors and ages, ideologies and gardening philosophies, but who all had one thing in common - they need to grow onions this winter.

In late October and early November, you could feel the gardening community getting antsy. "Do you know where I can get some onions, man?" it would ask, with a paranoid look in its eyes and a twitch. People were starting to get desperate - contemplating traveling long distances for the little allium cepas and bemoaning the prospect of a winter with no onions in their garden - until those three little words started circulating: Oak Valley Nursery.

And then they arrived! 16,000 onion seedlings in one day! 12,000 another! The phone was ringing off the hook with the callers pleading "did you get them? did you get the onions yet?" and people darkening the nursery's door, giddy at the thought of getting their onion fix.

John Jensen, proprietor of Oak Valley Nursery, attributes this general sense of desperation for our fine-bulbed-friends to the fact that Mill Creek Nursery recently retired, leaving one less onion-dealer in a town crazy for onions. Jensen has 10,000 seedlings growing in the nursery now that will be ready in a couple of weeks. Next year, he plans to distribute 100,000, since it seems Ukiah's onion habit is simply insatiable.