TOMBSTONE - Sweet Onions from Willcox?

For those who may not know, some of the sweetest onions around come from northern Cochise County. While Vidalia, Georgia and Texas Sweet onions are probably the best known onion varieties around, some folks say the Willcox Sweets beat 'em hands down.

The Sabbar Shriners have sold onions for years as a fundraiser to help defray costs of running the organization. They used to sell Vidalias, but according to Shriner Floyd Robb, the Willcox sweets have as much if not more sugar in them than an apple. And they store better in Arizona's dry climate.

Though this is only the third year of the festival in Tombstone, the Shriners have been selling the onions as a fundraiser since 1991.

Sunday, Marvin and Sallee Tice, from Sierra Vista, made the Tombstone trek to grab up several pounds of the tasty veggies that add zest to everything.

"I like them any way you can eat them. I put them in everything," said Sallee.

She uses the Georgia method of popping them into old pantyhose, one-by-one, and ties a knot between each so that air can circulate all around each onion. Keep them in a relatively cool place, she says, and they'll last quite a while.

Having spent the day before cutting 350 pounds of the large sweets for the specialty of the day - "blooming onions," Mark Baker flopped the pre-cut crowd-pleasers in the special mix and was careful to get a good coating on each one, as the hot oil began simmering. This was Baker's first shot at frying the bloomers. He had just become a member of the Shriners last week. No, it was not part of his initiation into the Shriners, he just happened to live in Tombstone, he said.

As people walked the street, the parade began and this year featured something brand new, The Sweet Onion Queen.

Loretta Howie said she was representing all Tombstone senior women, and her newly adopted chihuahua Termite, who was clad in a tiny sombrero and neckerchief, rode the parade route in a bright red convertible.

This was just wonderful," she said. "I was so surprised when they called me and told me I would be the Sweet Onion Queen. The Shriners do so much good for the children. This is a wonderful organization."

Howie said she was going to wear her tiara until next year when she passes it on to someone else.

"There's just something very pleasing when people bow to you. I kind of like that," she said with a laugh.

The Sabbar Shriners, whose home base is Tucson, actually encompass clubs from many areas including Cochise, Huachuca and Green Valley to name a few.

The annual event brings in around $30,000 for the 30,000 pounds of Willcox sweet onions. Not all the onions are sold in Tombstone. Many people place orders in advance and arrange for pick-up.