Onion Johnny

For the children's novel, see Onion John.

Onion Johnny is the nickname given to the Breton farmers and agricultural laborers that sell distinctive pink onions door-to-door in Great Britain.

They finally adapt this nickname for themselves as ar Johniged or ar Johnniged in Breton language.

Although having declined in number since the 1950s to the point where only a few remained, the Onion Johnny was once very common, and with the renewed interest since the late 1990s by the farmers and the public in small-scale agriculture, their numbers have recently made a small recovery. Dressed in striped shirt and beret, riding a bicycle hung with onions, the Onion Johnny became the stereotypical image of the Frenchman^[1] and in the past may have been the only contact that the ordinary British had with France.

Originating from the area around the town of Roscoff known as Bro Rosko, in Brittany, Onion Johnnies are farmers who find a more profitable market in England than at home, and typically bring their harvest across the English Channel in July to store in rented barns, returning home in December or January. They could have sold their products in Paris as well, but the roads and the railways were bad in the 19th century and going to the French capital city was still a long and difficult trip, while crossing the channel was shorter and easier. The trade apparently began in 1828 when the first successful trip was made by one Henri Ollivier. Although journeys are now made by ferry, small sail ships and steamers were previously used, and the crossing could be hazardous. Seventy Johnnies died when the steamer SS Hilda sank at Saint-Malo in 1905.

The golden age was during the 1920s; in 1929 nearly 1,400 Johnnies imported over 9,000 tonnes of onions to the UK. The Great Depression, followed by the devaluation of the Pound in the early 1930s, ended the era as trade suddenly fell, reaching a low in 1934, when fewer than 400 people imported under 3,000 tonnes.

In the aftermath of World War II, onions, in common with other goods, were subject to import restrictions, and were obliged to be traded through a single company. By 1973 the number of Johnnies had dropped to 160 people, trading 1,100 tonnes, and had fallen again to around 20 Johnnies by the end of the 20th century. The legend of their transporting their produce to Britain, though, inspired several farmers in Brittany to set up Brittany Ferries in the 1970s.

An Onion Johnny museum opened in the town of Roscoff in 2004, and the town holds a two-day Fête de l'Oignon (Onion Festival) every summer. Since July 2009, the Roscoff onion has been protected under the French Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée designation.

In August 2008, Berkeley Cinemas (Auckland, New Zealand) opened a restaurant underneath its Takapuna complex called "Onion Johnny's".

References

1. ^ Which is quite a contradiction, because they could not really speak French (at least those born before the WWII), badly or only with difficulty (Breton being a Celtic language related to Cornish and Welsh), so that in Wales, they often used their own Breton language to discuss with the Welsh people. "Non parlé au pays et a fortiori en Grande-Bretagne, le français était mal maîtrisé. Son usage ne s’est introduit dans les familles qu’après 1930, et cela par l’entremise des enfants scolarisés. Il était alors étrange et émouvant de voir les aînés, les Johnnies, conduits à parler – difficilement – le français quand leurs cousins de Normandie ou de Paris venaient en visite l’été." (Not spoken at home and even less in Great-Britain, French was ill known. Its use began to extend in the families after 1930, because the children learnt it at regular schools. It was quite odd and moving to see the elders, the Johnnies, trying to speak French -with difficulty - when their cousins living in Normandy or in Paris visited them in summer) in La saga des « Johnnies » de Roscoff by Marie-Thérèse Chapalain. [www.laligue.org/assets/Uploads/Diaspo8oignonsLigue.pdf]

• Herrick CORRE, Trubuillou eur Johnny war e vloavez kenta in le Courrier du Finistère 1929.

External links

• The Johnnies of Roscoff and its region (PDF) in French, Breton and English
• La Maison des Johnnies et de l’Oignon de Roscoff, Onion Johnny museum (in French)
• A modern Onion Johnny (archived content)
• "Onion Johnnie" article from the International Herald Tribune
• BBC short film (Real Video)
• A photo documentary of the last bicycle onion man