VIDALIA, GA – Fields of green stretch in every direction this time of year, starting just outside the quaint downtown of Vidalia itself and connecting the other small, Georgia towns in the 20-county official onion growing region. Any direction you drive you see acres and acres – more than 10,000 in all — of Georgia’s trademarked crop, the sweet Vidalia onion, which can only be grown within about a 50-mile radius of the namesake town.
Planted by hand in November and December from seedlings that started three months earlier, the Vidalia onion crop stands ready for harvest. To protect the state-owned trademark, Vidalias can only begin shipping on a day set each year by Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Tyler Harper.
This year, that date is April 17. Days before, the green disappears, as fields are plowed up to bring the sweet onions to the surface for easy harvest. Those onions are gathered and clipped by hand and transported to a packing facility.
Sweet Vidalia
The story comes to national television in a two-part special Friday – Sweet Vidalia – airing April 12 & 19 at 10 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. EDT on the RFD-TV Network’s (DirecTV, Dish, Cable, Sling) popular series Where The Food Comes From.
The start of Vidalia season is eagerly anticipated by chefs and home cooks alike. The sweet and savory onion has no equal for culinary use – or just for slicing and eating raw. It’s sweet enough to eat like an apple, pungent enough to spice up any dish. And the short availability – five months or less – tweaks demand further.
Background
Incredibly, though, the Vidalia onion is the result of what may be farming’s happiest accident.
Back in the 1930s, a Vidalia farmer named Mose Coleman got caught short when his white onion crop was lost to a late freeze. Desperately seeking new seedlings to meet his commitment to a local grocer on time, he turned to Texas. A variety grown there – the Grano 502, itself an offshoot of the once-famous Bermuda onion – was the only thing he could find. Coleman hurriedly planted the seedlings and was shocked and dismayed when they came up sweet instead of hot in Vidalia’s unique soil.
Instant Hit
The local grocer agreed to give them a try anyway. Vidalia onions were an instant hit – locally, at least. For the next 50-years they were a well-kept secret.
“Even back then, word had begun to spread about ‘those sweet onions from Vidalia,’” says Bob Stafford, the retired executive director of the Vidalia Onion Committee, which oversees production and protection of the crop and trademark. “Someone would mention that they were heading through Vidalia and people would ask then to bring back some of those sweet Vidalia onions.”
Where The Food Comes From will tell the amazing story behind the Vidalia onion – and introduce America to the world of these farmers, speaking with key industry players like John Shuman of Shuman Farms, who overcame tragedy to build an empire; Aries Haygood of A&M Farms, a tenacious cancer survivor; and Bo Herndon of Herndon Family Farms, who’d never farmed until he started his own – all of whom have earned Vidalia Grower of the Year honors. The show also visits the University of Georgia (UGA) Vidalia Onion and Vegetable Research Center where new varieties are tried and tested.
“It’s all in the soil,” says UGA Extension agent Chris Tyson. “It’s sandy enough to leach out some of the hotter elements. And it’s low in sulfur, which lets the sweetness shine through.”
Television Stories
Where The Food Comes From, now in Season 4 on RFD-TV and also heading into national distribution and syndication, travels the country telling stories of food and farming with 56 half-hour episodes produced.
Says producer and host Chip Carter, “People ask me all the time when we travel, ‘Is Vidalia a real place, or just the name of an onion?’ I’m very proud to show them just how real it is.”
For more information about Vidalia onion season and the TV series – including bonus clips and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the show — visit WhereTheFoodComesFrom.com.