What makes Vidalia onions so special?

Delbert Bland, the founder of Bland Farms in Glennville, Ga., has spent a lifetime promoting and growing Vidalia onions. He was instrumental in increasing consumers’ familiarity with the distinctive onion and was recently inducted into the Vidalia Onion Hall of Fame by the Vidalia Onion Committee.

In this latest episode of the “Tip of the Iceberg” podcast, Bland shares how he and other Vidalia growers put the Vidalia name on the map, getting 1-800-VID-ALIA phone number for mail-order onions and why Vidalias are the “gourmet of all onions.”

Bland and his father, Raymond, started growing Vidalia sweet onions in 1982. He says what sets Vidalia onions apart from other sweet onions is the growing conditions in Georgia — low sulfur content in surface water and the atmosphere, too, “develops a very mild sweet onion and it can't be duplicated anywhere else.”

“What separates Vidalia from everywhere else is they only make you cry when they're gone,” he says.

Bland says he and several other Vidalia growers worked hard to get a marketing order within the state of Georgia and a federal marketing order as non-Vidalia onions would use the Vidalia name to sell non-Vidalia onions.


In the beginning, there were two names for the onions being kicked around, Bland says: Glenville Sweets and Vidalia.

“The Wall Street Journal did a front page about the war between the two towns about the name and it went on to talk about no matter who wins out or [what they] want to call it, it's the gourmet of all onions,” he says. “That article probably did as much to put us on the map as anything. After that article the name Vidalia stuck.”

Bland had the foresight to buy 1-800-VID-ALIA number to help promote mail-order sales, and with the help of some advertising in regional magazines, name recognition started to take off.

“It just blew up overnight, all the mail-order business went crazy,” he said. “People were not necessarily ordering through the mail. They would see that name out there and they would go to the store and start asking for Vidalia onions. The stores, in turn, started calling and wanting to carry them in their stores.”