After greater than 4 generations of rising onions in the arid panorama of west Texas, Bruce Frasier, head of Dixondale, is aware of a factor or two about rising an ideal onion.
“The best thing a farmer can put on his crop is his shadow,” Frasier says. That’s proper: Time spent in the area, hands-on with the crop, working instantly with the laborers is the crux of their success.
From seed to residence
The Carrizo Springs-based farm was based in 1913 (the similar yr the National Onion Association was based) by John Mabson McClendon and his 14 yr previous son, Earl.
Cabbage and onions had been the focus in the early days, and the farm finally grew to incorporate cauliflower, carrots and cantaloupe. Frasier mentioned that since Earl, the enterprise has been handed right down to sons-in-law in order to maintain the farm in the household. Earl introduced Wallace Martin, his daughter Sissy’s husband, into farm management in 1948, and Martin introduced Frasier (who’s a West Point army academy graduate and married Martin’s daughter Jeanie) into the farming enterprise in the Eighties, when Frasier and Jeanie had been anticipating their first baby collectively.
Today, the Frasiers are proud to be the fourth era of household possession for Dixondale Farms.
The fertile soil of clay and sand containing humus is ideal for onion rising.
The major focus of Dixondale Farms is onion “sets,” additionally known as begins of bulbs, that are small onions grown from seed, then bought as transplants to different farms and residential gardeners. Farming for 4 generations isn’t any small feat, particularly contemplating a few of the main climate occasions farmers have needed to cope with over the many years, together with a significant freeze throughout the southern U.S. in 1985 that severely impacted the area’s onion growers and that season’s crops. (Dixondale fared higher than others that yr and labored to distribute what they needed to longtime prospects, serving to get the onion business again on their toes.)
What is the key to Dixondale’s success? Location, location, location! Onions develop nicely in the unfastened, sandy loam of Texas and since units are harvested early in the rising season, it permits the farm to shift to cantaloupes in the summer season months, preserving the farm in enterprise.
According to the National Onion Association, 6.75 billion kilos of onions are harvested in the U.S. yearly, and the greater than 2,000 acres of prime west Texas panorama places Dixondale Farms well-positioned to meet this demand. Frasier says that Dixondale Farms sells 600 to 800 million onion units a yr, harvesting 4 to 5 million crops a day at peak instances.
The good with the unhealthy
Consider this your official information to picking the proper onion, together with how you can put together it, too.
Having such an essential market share of the onion business is nice news for Dixondale Farms, however, as Frasier says, “the bad news is that if something happens to us, we can’t get any more product.”
“Bad news” has come to Frasier’s household many instances over the 100-plus years the firm has existed. Founder McClendon died only some quick years after beginning the farm in 1913, leaving its future on the shoulders of son Earl, who was simply 21 years previous at the time. Deep freezes led to complete crop failure a number of instances in the farm’s historical past. In 1950, the railroad system that took produce from the farm to wholesalers round the country stopped working by means of Carrizo Springs, and in 1961, third-generation proprietor Wallace Martin, together with 40 different households from Carrizo Springs, moved for one yr to Atlanta, Georgia, as a part of their army duties throughout the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Good news has come to Dixondale Farms as nicely, shaping the trajectory of the firm. In 1990, UPS started servicing Carrizo Springs, which sits about 40 miles from the Mexican border, west of San Antonio. This allowed Dixondale Farms to launch a mail-order catalog service to as soon as once more attain residence growers instantly — the firm’s first “catalog” was a single sheet of ordinary letter-sized paper — an space of enterprise that had boomed throughout the World War II because of the “victory gardens” motion, however then suffered after the railroad service in Carrizo Springs ended.
New beginnings
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When the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown began in the U.S. in March 2020, many individuals crammed their time at residence by beginning a vegetable backyard, each to offer them one thing to do and to complement their family grocery provides when pandemic panic led to reveal cabinets in markets. Dixondale Farms obtained an inflow of orders throughout that interval, and Frasier mentioned revenues from residence gardening orders grew by as a lot as 60 p.c, totaling about 45,000 new prospects.
Dixondale sells all kinds of onion units categorized by the area the place they’re meant to be planted. Onions are separated into quick, lengthy and intermediate days (that means what number of hours of daylight a day a location will get throughout the summer season rising season. For instance: Texas is a brief day space, whereas Maine is a protracted day space). The farm sends its home-grower prospects a collection of emails over seven weeks to assist them perceive onion rising finest practices. “I can’t guarantee success, but I can guarantee failure if you grow the wrong type of onion,” Frasier mentioned.
That type of dedication to prospects is a trademark of Dixondale Farms operations, which applies the similar stage of assist to its labor drive, too. The Frasiers keep a powerful perception in preserving locals employed and taking good care of their neighbors and the group they stay in; in return, the group helps the farm and is glad for its presence. Frasier says his spouse Jeanie is a “mother figure” to staff and tries to deal with them in their off-farm lives, as nicely. It all comes right down to respect, Frasier says, and while you deal with your prospects and staff, they deal with you, too.
Interested in rising your personal veggies? You’re not alone.