Vidalia Onion Country
Most people do not know the name of Mose Coleman, but a historical marker bearing his name sits on the late farmer’s property in Toombs County. Here is where Mose planted onions in 1931. But oddly, they turned out sweet, not hot like he had predicted. Nevertheless, the Toombs County farmer got a decent price for his novelty onions at the market. He managed to sell each 50-pound bag for $3.50. Over the years other farmers in the region tried their luck with the onions, which sold well in the Toombs County seat of Vidalia. Motorists traveling on nearby US 280 and Route 1 who tried the onions liked their sweet, mild taste. They bought them by the bag load and referred to them by the name of the town. Soon Vidalia onions appeared on the shelves of Piggly Wiggly and A&P grocery stores all over the East. Today, the Vidalia onion industry is worth an estimated $30 million. Each autumn and winter more than 200 farmers plant the sweet onions on about 14,000 acres. When harvested in the spring and early summer, each acre produces up to 70,000 plants.
Within site of the late Mose Coleman property are the 5,000-acre Stanley Farms and Vidalia Onion Factory. Like most Vidalia onion farms, the Stanleys run a family-owned, multi-generation business. Their onion acreage, however, is much larger than most, about 1,000 acres. Visitors can walk through the fields on either side of the factory. In early September, the Stanleys start seedbeds for the onions; and from November to February, they plant the seedlings by hand. Then come the hazards of the growing season. Too much rain can rot the stems. Too much cold can harden the centers. Too much heat can bring stifling weeds. In the spring, a straight blade behind a tractor digs up the onions. Then between one and two hundred migrant workers cut off the tops, which reach up to three feet in height, and put the onions in bags, which remain in the field for a day or two to dry in the sun. Then they are taken into the Vidalia Onion Factory for processing.
Visitors can also tour the processing plant inside the Vidalia Onion Factory, which serves as the family’s headquarters. Onions fresh from the field go into large, green metal driers, heated by gas, for a day or so of curing. Then they are moved to a conveyor belt where they roll up and down a long line of chutes, canals and tunnels as workers inspect them for soft spots or bruises. Next, the onions are sorted into peewee, medium and jumbo sizes and bagged, ready for delivery to roadside stands, grocery stores and mailboxes all over the world. Others go into controlled atmospheric storage units. Inside each of the tightly sealed rooms, where the temperature remains 34 degrees and the humidity 70 percent, is a mix of 92 percent nitrogen, 5 percent carbon dioxide and 3 percent oxygen. The combination puts onions into a deep sleep that keeps them fresh longer, dramatically lengthening the selling season. The Stanleys sell Vidalia onion products, such as jams, relishes and salad dressings in their gift shop and offer onion specialties in season in the shop’s café.
Over the years the nearby city of Glennville in Tattnall County has feuded with Vidalia over the origin of the Georgia sweet onion. It hosts a separate onion festival. And in 1979 when Vidalia conducted a test that determined its onions were sweeter than those in the Glennville area, the latter city responded with an experiment of its own that concluded its onions to be less pungent. Farmers who grow sweet onions in Tattnall County produce more than twice as many as those in Toombs. One of the largest Tattnall County Vidalia onion farms is Bland Farms, which the Bland family has owned since the 1940s. During April the farm employs 1,000 people to harvest onions on its 2,400 acres. Visitors can tour the onion fields and packing facility.