Sweet Memories

Tracy Dahl ’01, a copy editor for The Washington Post, clues the world into an oh-so-sweet Whitman tradition in a fun, first-person story that illuminates Whitman’s 25-year-plus tradition of sending incoming first-years (including this year’s crop) a box of Walla Walla Sweet Onions.

Tracy opens the story, published in July, with her memory of the day a gift box of Walla Walla Sweets – “Individually wrapped, each one was at least 4 inches in diameter and almost comically large” – landed on her family’s Portland, Ore., doorstep the summer before she entered Whitman. The article goes on to describe her taste tests and cooking experiments with Washington’s official vegetable, and she seasons the article with slices of the Walla Walla Valley’s onion history and tantalizing recipes for the giant orbs, including cooking tips from a Walla Walla chef.

A Pio editor, Tracy graduated with degrees in politics and German literatures and languages. She studied in Vienna, Austria, on a Fulbright and attended journalism school at the University of Missouri before joining the Post

Read her story: Onion tradition continues, draws cheers not tears