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Food Safety Blog Recipes

Author: Megan Jacobsen

Three Cheers for Onions! Join Gills Onions in Celebrating National Onion Month

Posted on by Megan Jacobsen

June is National Onion Month! It’s time to celebrate all things onions and all the wonderful ways these versatile vegetables make life healthy and delicious. 

At Gills Onions, we couldn’t be prouder to be part of bringing this amazing product to your kitchens. That’s why we’re marking this month by sharing some of our favorite onion facts. We hope they help you appreciate onions as much as we do. 

Centuries of Amazing Onions

Before farming was invented, humans were eating onions. And, once the earliest humans began cultivating crops more than 5,000 years ago, onions were one of the first to be domesticated.

Onions were the perfect crop for early civilizations. Their hardy nature makes them less perishable than other fruits and vegetables. They are also easy to grow, easy to transport, and can be stored or dried to be used in times of scarcity. 

Ancient civilizations used onions not only for food but also for medicine, art, and worship. In Medieval times, onions were sometimes used as currency, rent payments, and even wedding gifts. 

When the first pilgrims arrived in America on the Mayflower, they brought onions, but surprise! Native Americans were already using wild onions for cooking and healing, as a source of dye, and even as toys.  

Americans Can’t Get Enough Onions

Today, onions are the third largest fresh vegetable industry in the United States, with over 125,000 acres of onions planted across the country. The average American eats 20 pounds of onions per year, which means our nation collectively eats over 450 semi-truck loads of onions each day. 

The onion is used in 93 percent of American dining establishments. It is one of the top menu items for appetizers with popular dishes like onion rings, onion blooms, and French onion soup. 

Hot tip: If you’ve really enjoyed your onions for the evening and are afraid of fragrant breath, freshen up by eating a bit of fresh parsley. 

Onions Are Great for Your Health

They don’t call onions nature’s ninja for nothing. Onions offer countless health benefits to everyone who eats them. 

In fact, the saying an apple a day keeps the doctor away could also be said of onions. Like apples, onions contain quercetin, a powerful antioxidant that helps delay oxidative damage to cells and tissue. And recent studies at Wageningen Agricultural University, the Netherlands, demonstrate that the body absorbs three times more quercetin from onions than from apples. 

Onions are low in sodium and are fat-free. They are also high in essential nutrients including:

  • Vitamin C
  • Dietary fiber
  • Folic acid
  • Calcium
  • Iron

New health research shows that onions may reduce the risk of certain diseases including cancer, gastric ulcers, heart disease, cataracts, and osteoporosis. Their natural ability to reduce inflammation also makes onions helpful in treating respiratory illness.

Celebrate by Eating an Onion

So, this month when you’re shopping or grabbing take out from your favorite restaurant, reach for the onions. As for Gills Onions, we’ll continue working alongside our fellow US onion growers and wonderful advocates like the National Onion Association to bring this amazing food to consumers like you. 

Ready to try onions grown “The Gill Way”? Contact our sales department to learn more. 

Onions: The Perfect BBQ Ingredient

Posted on by Megan Jacobsen

Grab the grill, start up the smoker, and read up on your favorite recipes. May is National BBQ Month, a time to celebrate the fun and – of course – food that BBQ brings. As you plan your menu for your next BBQ, don’t forget the onions! Onions are a versatile and delicious addition to many BBQ dishes, sauces, and sides. Here are a few ideas of how you can use onions to create mouthwatering BBQ meals. 

Start with a Sauce

Whether you’re eyeing hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, sausage, or ribs, every BBQ deserves a good sauce. Onions are a great added ingredient to your favorite store bought sauce, or you can try your hand at crafting a sauce of your own. Here are a few recipes to get your creative juices flowing. 

Caramelized Onion BBQ Sauce — Caramelized red onions, horseradish, and chipotle powder add depth and spice to this versatile BBQ sauce. You can customize it with your favorite store-bought BBQ sauce, favorite beer, or favorite non-alcoholic beverage. Try a tangy apple juice for a family-friendly version. 

Caramelized Onion and Honey BBQ Sauce — If you like a sweeter sauce, try out this honey, tomato, and, of course, caramelized onion recipe. You’ll also find hints of molasses, mustard, brown sugar, and bacon.  

Sweet Onion Apple BBQ Sauce — If you crave the freshness of summer BBQ with the warmth of fall flavor, this is the sauce for you. Slow cooked apples, pureed caramelized onions, and cinnamon combine to delight even the most picky palate. 

Get Creative with Grilled Onions

One of the best things about onions and BBQ is that onions easily stand on their own. If you want to upgrade your recipe, just add some grilled onions. Or, you can get a bit more creative and add your own culinary flare. Here are a few ideas to get you started. 

Charred Onions and Chives — Follow these simple steps to get a beautifully charred onion each time you grill. The key is heat, a bit of olive oil, and salt. Top it off with finely chopped chives. 

Grilled Blooming Onion — That’s right. You can make this famous restaurant onion appetizer at home on your own grill. This recipe uses mozzarella cheese, your favorite steak sauce, and a large white onion to make a dish that is pretty to look at and good to eat. 

BBQ Onion Steaks with Honey Mustard Sauce — For the vegetarians in your life or to simply mix up your meal, grill up a batch of these onion “steaks.” Thick slabs of onion are covered in a honey mustard sauce and grilled until caramelized. 

Stuffed BBQ Onions — This innovative take on grilled onions uses the onion itself as a bowl to house delicious bits of BBQ onion and bacon. 

Spice up Your Side Dishes with Onions

If you’re searching for the perfect side dish to highlight your BBQ skills, onions can help any food shine. White and red onions are the stars of many wonderful salads and soups as well as important components of vegetable side dishes. 

Caramelized Onions and Apples — Slow cook sliced apples and sliced onions until caramelized. Then, dress them up with thyme sprigs for a tasty side dish. 

Peppers and Onions — Simple and satisfying, combining red and yellow bell peppers with yellow onion in a light sautee makes a great topping for BBQ meats or hot dogs. 

Balsamic Mushrooms and Onions — If you’re more of a mushroom maven, try this simple combo that pairs them with onions and balsamic vinegar for a zingy side dish or steak garnish. 

Classic Coleslaw — This chilled BBQ classic is easy to dress up. Grab a pre-made coleslaw mix and add a few ingredients like minced onion, buttermilk, and white wine vinegar to make a sauce that zings. 

Onion and Quinoa Salad — Bring together ancient grains and fresh onion for a refreshing summer side dish. 

Ready to try onions the Gills Way? For more information, contact our sales department. 
 

2023 IFPA Foodservice Conference & What You Need to Know

Posted on by Megan Jacobsen

It’s 2023, and the International Fresh Produce Association’s Foodservice Conference is back. Our team at Gills Onions is excited to be attending. Our industry has seen unprecedented changes and faced many unforeseen challenges over the past several years. There’s no better way to celebrate how far we’ve come than IFPA Foodservice Conference. 

This year’s event will take place July 27–28, 2023, in Monterey, California. At the conference, you’ll find attendees from every corner of our industry, including operators, distributors, and retail foodservice buyers; grower-shippers and processors (like Gills Onions); and even business solutions providers. It gives everyone a chance to connect, learn about innovations, and of course, do business. 

Our Gills Onions team is excited to be back again at IFPA Foodservice Conference doing what we do best: sharing the good news of fresh fruits and vegetables. We love the chance to show why we are the best at what we do and how we lead in sustainability, food safety, value-add, and flavor. We believe in doing business the old-fashioned way – with a handshake and a face-to-face conversation, building relationships that last. 

We’re Proud to Stand With Our Partners

We’re proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with our partners in foodservice. It’s no secret that pandemic and post-pandemic has been difficult, and Gills Onions wasn’t immune. Restaurants closed and reopened and closed again. New mandates and restrictions forced us to get creative and adapt how we do business. Businesses across our industry had to make difficult decisions to reduce staff, and at times, it seemed like things would never return to “normal.” 

With a continued national labor shortage, reducing costs and labor in the kitchen are more important than ever. At Gills Onions, we are proud to offer a value-added product that saves kitchens time and money on labor and transportation costs. And, onions are one of the most commonly used products across foodservice. (It makes sense. They’re delicious and versatile.) 

IFPA Foodservice Conference is the perfect time to stand together and share an optimistic vision of the future. We look forward to seeing you there.

Ready to try onions the Gills Way? For more information, contact our sales department.

STEM is GREAT Initiative: Bridging the Gap between Agriculture and Technology

Posted on by Megan Jacobsen

In April, Gills Onions welcomed young health academy students from local Ventura County High Schools. Headed by the S.T.E.M. is G.R.E.A.T. Initiative, the students got to experience the magic of onion power for themselves! Students were able to watch the Gills Onions zero-waste project in action – ensuring that all onion waste is reused to create a sustainable energy source.

Harvesting Energy: Gills Onions’ Commitment to Environmental Sustainability

Our plant can process up to a million pounds of raw onions each day, creating an average of 150 tons of onion waste. By collaborating with innovators across the United States over several years, Gills Onions was able to develop the Advanced Energy Recovery System (AERS), which converts onion waste into ultra-clean, virtually emissions-free electricity. 

The AERS provides 100% of the base electrical load for our processing plant, the equivalent of enough power to supply 460 homes for an entire year. It also eliminates 14,500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

While these students’ interests may lie in the medical field, they had a unique opportunity to create a connection between where our food is coming from, what we put in our bodies, and the process to get it there, all while having a significant impact on our health and the environment’s health. 

As our communities progress and thrive, the importance of S.T.E.M. grows increasingly apparent. This is especially true in the local agriculture industry, where S.T.E.M.-related careers offer unique and exciting opportunities for students to get involved in innovative scientific research, cutting-edge technology, and 21st-century engineering.

Empowering the Next Generation of Agricultural Leaders: The Impact of SEEAG

Since 2008, SEEAG (Students Eco-Education and Agriculture) has impacted the lives of over 100,000 students and community members, providing food & agricultural literacy programs and community education & outreach events 100% free of charge.

SEEAG began with one dairy farmer’s daughter and her vision to change the lives of young women. When Mary Maranville arrived in Ventura County, California over 20 years ago and saw the bounty of local agriculture and farms, it inspired her to educate local school children about the origins of their food. SEEAG is a mission dedicated to the memory of Mary’s father and was founded to cultivate agricultural ambassadors with the hope they will help preserve family farms around the world. 

Seeing as how there was such a demand for women in the field, the STEM is GREAT initiative (Science Technology Engineering and Math and Girls Representing and Entering Agriculture Today) began as a way to provide more opportunity and insight into the Agricultural industry to underrepresented high school girls in Ventura County, especially women of color.

The program has since expanded to include all school-age children in Ventura County as well as Santa Barbara, providing foundational knowledge on Agriculture during workshops, hands-on lessons, and field trips to local farms.

SEEAG programs also expand to The Youth Wellness Initiative, which educates, inspires, and empowers kids to increase their consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. Farm Lab brings kids directly to farms, building awareness of and appreciation for agriculture from farm to consumption. SBC & Farm Day educates the community about the farm origins of their food in order to cultivate informed citizens and agricultural ambassadors. 

The S.T.E.M. Career Pathways in Agriculture is designed to open students’ eyes to these opportunities and help them explore the ever-evolving world of agriculture. By getting involved in this dynamic field, students can make a real difference and help shape the future of agriculture. Join us on this journey of discovery and innovation!

To learn more about S.T.E.M., visit https://www.seeag.org/stem

Join the Double Your Impact Challenge

Gills Onions is a long-time supporter of SEEAG’s agricultural education programming.

“SEEAg does a really good job with their S.T.E.M. program. Our Gills team enjoyed welcoming these students to our facility and showing them firsthand what we do as a business in their community,” said Steve Gill, Gills Onions president and SEEAG board member. “We believe in SEEAg’s mission in educating students about the origins of their food, so they feel empowered with that knowledge as a consumer.”

Join Gills Onions donation match program in May for the “Gill’s Onions Double Your Impact Challenge” where Gills Onions will match all donations up to $15,000 for every dollar donated to Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG) as part of SEEAG’s annual Double Your Impact Challenge.

 For more information or to donate, visit www.seeag.org/doubleyourimpact.

Ready to try onions grown “The Gills Way”? Contact our sales department to learn more.

Celebrating 40 Years With Gills

Posted on by Megan Jacobsen

This year marks 40 years with Gills – happy anniversary to us! We’re so excited to celebrate this incredible milestone and can’t wait to see what the future holds. Since 1983, this family-owned business has been committed to feeding the US and Canada the best onions, and things have only gotten better with time. Take a journey back in time with us, and see how Gills got to where we are today. 

Back to Our Roots

The Gill family has a long history of farming in Ventura County, California, with roots stretching all the way back to the 1880s. “My whole family grew up on a farm,” said Owner/CEO Steve Gill. “We were heavy into vegetables, but I started the onion growing and fresh-cut processing side of our business.” 

In the beginning, Steve founded Gills Onions as an industrial processing plant, providing whole peeled onions to a salsa company. Over the last 40 years, that small food ingredient factory evolved and expanded into a massive foodservice and retail partner known for its whole peeled and diced onions. 

“It’s a night and day difference,” said Steve about the company’s evolution. “Food safety wasn’t as widespread back then, and we were just learning how to do business at that point. Our equipment is better now, technology is better, and most importantly, our onion varieties and growing program are better.” 

Gills Mission and Vision

Our mission has been to provide the highest quality onion from the beginning. Thanks to Steve’s innovations over the last 40 years, Gills has improved soil health, saved thousands of kWh in energy, and developed unique relationships with seed breeders, machinery manufacturers, and other partners. 

“Steve has very dramatically changed our onion growing program,” said Megan Jacobsen, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “He’s not just a processor on the Gills side; he is a boots-on-the-ground farmer with our sister company, Rio Farms. We believe that from seed-to-package everything begins with the soil, and Steve takes great pride in that.”

The Future of Gills

The future certainly looks bright for Gills, and no matter what lies ahead, we’re ready for new challenges and successes as they come. “As our customers evolve, we evolve with them,” said Jacobsen. “That’s what we’ve done for the past 40 years, and it’s what we will continue to do for the next 10, 20, 30, and 40 years to come. Our commitment to our customers is to continue providing a great product that is safe and reliable.”

As we look to the horizon, we’re excited about opportunities to implement new technology, increase sustainability efforts, and do what we do best – grow onions.

“Whole peeled onions are our future,” said Steve. “We will keep providing the best onion in the country.”  

See Gills at the 2023 IFPA Foodservice Conference

Gills is thrilled to be back at the International Fresh Produce Association’s Foodservice Conference & Expo this year. On July 27 & 28, 2023, we’ll be in Monterey, California with attendees from all over the industry. Whether you’re in foodservice buying, distribution, or business solutions, we’d love to see you there. Stop by our booth and say hello to Steve and other team members, and join us in celebrating 40 years!

Cheers to The Best Onion Around

The past 40 years have been an amazing journey of growth, leading us to the very top. Gills Onion truly grows and delivers the best onions in the country, and we couldn’t have done it without Steve’s vision, a dedicated team at our facility and farm, and all of you who have supported us along the way. 

Cheers to 40 years and the next 40 to come! 🥂

Ready to try onions grown “The Gill Way?” Contact our sales department to learn more.