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brate the values and history of its company. is provides retailers with an attractive secondary display for cross-merchandising, and it’s a great way to promote premium sweet onions all year long. Whole or cut, sweet onions can be cross-promoted in the meat, poultry and sh departments with menu ideas and recipe cards.
COMMUNITY BENEFITS
Shuman Farms is proud of the positive impact of its Peruvian sweet onion program on the economic growth of the Southeast. e
company imports its sweet onions through the Port of Savannah (GA), helping to support area jobs. Peruvian onions also enable Shuman Farms to maintain a year-round labor force that is highly skilled in the packing and distribution of sweet onions. e economic contribution to the job market is especially important to retail partners in the Southeast.
Shuman Farms also is active in produce industry initiatives. In 2002, Shuman founded Produce for Kids, an organization centered on educating families about the bene ts of
eating fresh fruits and vegetables, while raising money for charitable causes. Since the start of Produce for Kids, the organization has raised more than $6.5 million to bene t children and families, including those a ected by hunger through Feeding America. Shuman is a brand partner of this year’s Power Your Lunchbox campaign and will be highlighted, along with other brand partners, in social media outreach throughout August and September.
RECIPE IDEAS
As temperatures drop, the use of sweet onions in recipes changes. “Our customers look for stew and hot meal ingredients as the weather gets colder,” says Sal Selletto, produce manager at Super Foodtown, Sea Girt, NJ, which is part of the 69 stores under the Food- town banner. “People associate Vidalias with spring and ask about Vidalias all year long, so they’re surprised when we introduce them to sweet onions in the fall.”
Mills of Lucky’s Market says, “Our customers use Peruvian sweet onions more as a recipe addition in the fall, compared to summer when they add them to sandwiches, burgers, guacamole and salads. ey have a good sweet onion at an unexpected time of year.”
Peruvian sweet onions can be used in any recipe that calls for Vidalias. e website Allrecipes.com includes more than 100 recipes for sweet onions. Among the highest rated are French onion soup, roasted sweet potatoes and sweet onions, grilled onions and pota- toes, baked sweet onion dip, and roasted beets and sweet onions. e Produce Moms website includes recipes for a sweet onion casserole, sweet onion quiche, sweet onion risotto, pork tenderloin and onion jam sliders, and a sweet onion dip. is year’s Power Your Lunchbox campaign from Produce for Kids features two recipes with sweet onions from partner Shuman Farms, wonton taco cups and pizza pasta salad lunchbox.
Miriam Rubin, a food writer and recipe developer in Ghent, NY, uses sweet onions in place of dry onions in most recipes. “In the fall, I might feature thin sliced or chopped sweet onions mixed with a touch of heavy cream and fresh herbs as a topping for pizza. Quartered sweet onions work well in a medley of roasted fall vegetables. I’ve added them along with cabbage to a sheet pan dinner of chicken thighs marinated in sriracha and soy sauce. Other easy dishes include a deep-dish sweet onion pie, a quick vinegar pickle to top quesadillas or sh tacos, and a pureed soup of squash, apple and sweet onion. Best of all, I don’t cry when slicing sweet onions.” pb
52 / SEP TEMBER 2019 / PRODUCE BUSINESS