A member of the lily family, the onion’s relatives include daffodils, tulips, lily-of-the-valley, wild hyacinth, leeks, garlic and chives. Wild onions may have grown all over Europe and West Asia, but they probable originated in Central Asia.

Onions have been an integral part of many cultures. Sacred to ancient Egyptians, they were as valuable as gold and used for rent payments and wedding gifts. When they took an oath, Egyptians placed their right hand on an onion, believing it a symbol of eternity. Builders of the great pyramids ate onions to give them strength. King Tut’s tomb was adorned with onions as a farewell offering. The Greeks believed them to be an aphrodisiac and strength builder. The Romans valued them as medicine, recommending onions for snakebites and anyone who had been struck dumb. Romans spread the onion throughout Europe. It came with early immigrants to America. During the Civil War, General Grant declared, “I will not move my troops without onions,” believing they prevented dysentery.

Vidalia onions, which have become one of the most recognized sweet onions in the world, were first grown in Toombs County in the 1930s by Mose Coleman. The farmer was surprised to find the onions he planted turned out mild and sweet instead of hot and pungent. Yet when his onions garnered a high price, other farmers began planting them. Tourists who bought them at the Vidalia Farmers’ Market coined the name “Vidalia onion.”

By the mid-1970s there were more than 600 acres total acres of Vidalia onions. In 1986 the state gave the Vidalia onion legal status and established a 20-county region, the only place the onion may grow. Similar hybrids grow in other parts of the country, but the combination of sandy soil and mild climate provide the Vidalia onion with its distinct flavor. The official state vegetable, Vidalia onions have a higher water and sugar content than other onions. But they also have twice the vitamin C of apples and high levels of fiber, vitamin B6, potassium and other vitamins and minerals.

Available fresh from late April to mid-July, Vidalia onions continue to grow primarily in the 20 counties around the Vidalia area. They are cultivated today on more than 10,000 acres.

Vidalia Onions Buyer’s Guide

Onions should have a light, golden brown bulb with a white interior, be rounded on the bottom and slightly flat on the top.

Vidalia onions bruise easily so handle carefully.

To enjoy them longer than the 10 to 12 weeks they’re available each year, buy in large quantities and store them properly.

Keep them cool, dry and separate to ensure they stay fresh. One way is to store them in the legs of old pantyhose. Tie a knot between each onion and cut above the knot when you need an onion. Hang in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place.

Onions can also be stored on racks or screens as long as they don’t touch and are kept in a cool, dry place.

Vidalia Onion Trademark

Over the years onion farmers have raged a persistent battle as to whose onions can wear the Vidalia trademark. In the early 1980s, one man was taken to court for selling out-of-state onions as Vidalias. His defense was that genetics, not location, made the onion sweet; because they were of the yellow granex hybrid variety, the onions would grow sweet anywhere.

While some agricultural researchers quietly concede that variety has something to do with it, Vidalia farmers, nonetheless, have always maintained that the soil and climate of the region are primarily responsible to make their product unique. The specific blend of sandy loam soil with low sulfur content and mild winters gives character to the onions, which have higher sugar and water contents than ordinary ones. One 1979 experiment determined that a Vidalia onion has more sugar than orange juice, apple juice and Coca-Cola.

To put an end to the feuding, the state determined in 1986 that only onions grown in thirteen counties and portions of seven others could wear the Vidalia label. Sweet onion growers across the nation have challenged the commercial supremacy of the original Georgia sweets, but none have come close to the marketing success of those with the label Vidalia®.

This member of the morning glory family originated in the Americas. Columbus observed their cultivation in the Caribbean during his fourth voyage; DeSoto found sweet potatoes in what became Louisiana; and the pilgrims feasted on them during the first Thanksgiving.

Early settlers grew sweet potatoes on raised ridges. The crop usually came from vines cut from older plants and was planted following corn in July. After the sweet potatoes were harvested, hogs often grazed over the fields. Farmers cured their sweet potato harvest in oblong pits lined and covered with corn stalks. Soil then covered the pit to protect the vegetables from rain and frost. An opening in the pit allowed some ventilation. The tuber was known as the staff of life during the Civil War, providing the main sustenance to civilians and soldiers alike—either baked, fried, roasted or served in pudding and pie. The state led the nation in sweet potato production from 1836 to 1936, at one time devoting more than 150,000 acres to the crop. Today Georgia is the seventh-largest sweet potato producer in acreage with 1,700 acres devoted to sweet potato production.

A tasty holiday tradition in pies, puddings and casseroles, sweet potatoes are also one of the most nutritionally complete foods available, packed with 15 essential vitamins and minerals, including twice the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin A. Sweet potatoes are low in sodium and high in thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin C, iron, potassium, calcium and fiber.

Two types of sweet potato are available in Georgia: the moist-flesh sweet potatoes which are soft and sweet when cooked; and the Jersey-type sweet potatoes, which have a dry, mealy flesh and stay firm when cooked.

The names sweet potatoes and yams are often used interchangeably. Yet, despite the fact that the two have resemblances in appearance and taste, they are from two different families. Yams aren’t grown in the United States but close to the Equator.

Sweet potatoes, available from late October through December, grow in all parts of the state, but primarily in South Georgia in the Tifton area, where they flourish in the hot, humid climate.

A Buyers Guide to Sweet Potatoes

When buying sweet potatoes, look for a firm, smooth potato, uniform in shape and color.

Select thick, chunky, medium-sized vegetables that taper at both ends.

Handle sweet potatoes gently to avoid bruising.

Georgia sweet potatoes range from pale yellow to dark orange-red, depending on the variety.

Avoid buying sweet potatoes that show signs of decay or blemishes.

Store sweet potatoes in a cool, dark, well-ventilated place.

Although originating in the Americas, peanuts took a trip across the world before coming of age back in the United States. Believed to have originated in Peru or Brazil in about 750 BC, peanuts filled jars placed in the graves of ancient Incas to provide food in the afterlife. Spanish explorers introduced the peanut to Europe, Asia and Africa. Slaves then brought the groundnut back to America where they planted them throughout the South. Although a staple for both Blue and Gray soldiers in the Civil War, peanuts were not grown much in the 1800s. But the groundbreaking work of George Washington Carver, an Alabama plant scientist who developed more than 300 uses from peanuts—including peanut butter, shoe polish and shaving cream—changed all that. Coupled with cotton’s decline after the boll weevil epidemic, peanuts became an important cash crop for many southern farmers in the early 1900s.

Also called groundnuts, ground peas, goobers and goober peas, peanuts, unlike other nuts, flower above the ground, but the fruit develops below it. The nut, actually a legume like peas or beans, is an excellent source of protein, B vitamins, vitamin E, zinc, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus. Georgia, led by Early and Decatur counties, produces about 40 percent of the national output. Mostly of the runner variety used to make peanut butter, Georgia peanuts are harvested in autumn.

Georgia’s most recognizable fruit traveled all over the world before reaching the Peach State. First cultivated in ancient China, peaches went to Greece with Alexander the Great’s soldiers around 322 BC. A peach in Rome around 100 AD cost the equivalent of more than four dollars; in Victorian England about five. Spanish explorers traveling through Mexico and Florida brought the first peaches to North America, where they spread through missionary and Indians populations. The original settlers to the colony planted peaches in the Trustees Garden in Savannah in the 1700s. Highly perishable, the fruit was grown mostly for home use; its often hard and bitter fruit was fed to hogs or made into brandy.

In the 1850s growers like Robert Nelson and R.J. Moses, experimenting in Middle Georgia nurseries, developed better tasting peaches that they shipped on a limited basis on the railroads. In 1872, Samuel Rumph of Marshallville cultivated the Elberta, a peach unrivaled in taste, color and size, that when shipped by rail in newly invented refrigerated boxes sold extremely well in Northern markets. The region, notably Peach County, continues to produce most of the state’s peaches.

Georgia peaches, which number about 2.5 million trees on about 20,000 acres, can produce 160 million pounds of fruit in a good year.

A refreshing taste for summer, peaches have a perfect blend of flavor and nutrition. They can be enjoyed as appetizers, desserts and everything in between. And they contain important nutrients like fiber, riboflavin and beta-carotene, which have been linked to a reduced cancer risk. Peaches are one of the lowest calorie fruits.

Georgia produces more than 40 commercial varieties of peaches, available fresh from mid-May to early August. They are divided into two main categories. Clingstone, the earlier variety, have fruit that cling to the stone, or pit. The fruit of the latter one, freestone, readily breaks from the pit.

A Buyers Guide to Peaches

Buyer’s Guide to Peaches

When selecting peaches, smell the fruit. A member of the rose family, peaches should have a pleasant, sweet fragrance.

Look for a creamy gold or yellow under-color. The red or “blush” of a peach indicates variety, not ripeness.

Peaches should be soft to the touch, but not mushy.

Look for a well-defined crease that runs from the stem to the point.

Don’t squeeze peaches. They bruise easily.

Place firm peaches on the counter for a day or two to ripen.

Promptly refrigerate ripe peaches and eat them within a week of purchase.

To peel a peach, dip it into boiling water for 30 second, then cold water. The peel should slide off easily.

To keep sliced peaches from darkening, add lemon juice or ascorbic acid.

How has a hot breakfast cereal become so identifiable with the South? Could it be because grits have been the common ingredient of Southern society? After all, grits have crossed over every culture, from Indian to farmer, from white to black. Or maybe it’s because grits simply can’t be found anywhere else?

The American Indians, who depended on corn as a year-round staple, had different names for this softened corn dish. The Creek Indians called their version “sofki.” The English colonists borrowed the name, “hommony corn,” from the northern tribes. The colonists also borrowed the Indian cooking techniques, learning two ways of hulling the corn. They would either break the corn into pieces, and then clear the hulls by winnowing; or clear the hulls by boiling the kernels in lye, which was made from sifted hardwood ashes dissolved in a pot of boiling water. Lye hominy was the popular choice among early settlers.

These days grits (Anglo-Saxon “grytt” for bran and “greot” for ground) are still produced by variations of each method. The corn in mass-produced grits, either instant or regular, is steamed to remove the hull, then dried and quickly milled. Stone-ground corn, on the other hand, is milled slowly and leaves behind more of the heart of the kernel, which has nutritional value.

How do you cook grits? Which foods should they accompany? Lewis Grizzard answered these questions for most southerners in his “Grits Billy Bob” recipe from Gettin’ It On, a Down-Home Treasury:

“First, don’t fool with no instant grits. The idiot who invented instant grits also thought of frozen fried chicken, and they ought to lock him up before he tries to freeze-dry collards.

“Get yourself some Aunt Jeminas or some Jim Dandys. Cook ‘em slow and stir every chance you get. Otherwise, you’ll have lumps, and you don’t want lumps.

“Salt and pepper and stir in enough butter to choke a goat. Fry some bacon and sausage on the side and crumble that in, and then come right on top of that with all the cheese the law will allow.

“Grits Billy Bob ought not to run out of the pot. They ought to crawl. Serve hot. Cold Grits Billy Bob are harder than a steel-belted radial.”