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TEXAS
ONIONS
Turning Bermudas into Vidalias
with a Little Help from CotullaPage
2 THE
VIDALIA ONION |
The Vidalia
Onion Toombs
County, Georgia is acknowledged to be the birthplace of the Vidallia Onion. Georgia
had been having a problem with weeds that were growing faster than the locally
planted onion sets. Texas transplants, it was hoped, would give the farmers a
much-needed head start and so Texas Granex onions from Carrizo
Springs (near Cotulla)
were shipped there in 1952.
Mose Coleman, a Georgia farmer discovered
one day that his onions lacked the expected characteristic bite. The onion's mildness
is attributed to the soil found in a 20 county area. (Only onions grown in these
counties - or selected parts of a few others can market onions under the Vidalia
name.)
Farmer Coleman had a hard time at first convincing people to bite
into his onions, but when they did they became believers. Soon it seemed that
everyone in Southern Georgia was growing sweet mild onions.
In 1952,
Vidalia was a small Georgia town that wasn't famous for anything in particular.
It was a junction of two major highways, however, and hosted a farmer's market
that did a good business with tourists going and coming from Florida. These produce
buying tourists spread the word about these onions and soon magazine ads appeared
(right next to the mail order Chihuahuas in teacups). The name Vidalia was being
fused with the "world's sweetest onion."
Memphis based Piggly Wiggly
Markets started handling them by name in the 50s and 60s and onion festivals in
Vidalia and nearby Glennville, Georgia pushed awareness.
Production increased
tenfold in ten years and soon 14,000 acres were in cultivation. Georgia's Vidalia
harvest brings in $50 million annually.
Back to Texas Onions, page 1
© John Troesser
"They
shoe horses, don't they?" April 3, 2004 Column
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