* Onions were one of the first vegetables to be cultivated from about 3500 BC. They are said to have been the Egyptians favourite vegetable (the Romans favourite was cabbage). The staple Egyptian diet was bread, beer and onions.
* Most vegetables exist today in both wild and cultivated form. The onion is an exception - no wild form is known.
* In 1977 The National Vegetable Research Station received The Queen's award for Industry for developing a simple dressing that practically eliminated neck rot, the major disease of onions in storage. It also had the effect of extending the crop season. All the onion seed can be treated with £ 500 worth of dressing. In 1960, 90% of Britain's onions were imported - this has been now reduced to less than 50%.
* In Medieval Britain, the onion was highly regarded for its medicinal properties but less so for it's culinary qualities. One Herbal warned - 'The onion being eaten, yea thought it be boiled, causeth headache, hurteh the eyes, and maketh a man dim-sighted, dulleth the senses and provoketh over-much sleep, especially being eaten raw'.
* A Turkish fable relates that the onion was created by the devil and came to earth with him when he was thrown out of heaven.
* There is a traditional belief that the severity of a winter can be predicted by inspecting the year's onions. The thicker and more numerous the layers of skin, the harder the winter to come.
* Various "folklore" methods of preventing the eyes from watering while peeling onions have been suggested, including peeling them under water, or holding a piece of dried bread between the teeth. None are particularly effective.