Onion Johnnies, the travelling salesmen whose berets,
striped tops and bicycles inspired Britain and much of the world's classic
image of the archetypal Frenchman, now have their own museum in the Breton town
of Roscoff.
Housed in a traditional small farm, the museum tells the
story of the Johnnies and onions from Roscoff. Declining since the 1950s to
only a few, the Onion Johnny was once very common. With renewed interest since
the late 1990s by farmers and the public in small-scale agriculture, their
numbers have recently made a small recovery.
The Onion Johnny museum opened in 2004, with a two-day Fête
de l'Oignon (Onion Festival) held every summer. Since 2009 the Roscoff onion
has been protected under the French Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée
designation.
It sure beats the mass-marketed, impersonal, corporate grocery store goods. I've never seen Onion Johnnies but they sound like a very good idea. Good things come with a beret!
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