Onions Without Tears

Bland Farms

P.O. Box 506

Glennville, Ga. 30427-0506

(800) VIDALIA

Catalogue Available, Check, Money Order or Major Credit Cards

The F-1 hybrid granex is a California onion with skin the color of sweet butter, but it had to travel to Georgia before it found stardom. There, in the mild, moist climate of the southeastern part of the state, the granex became the super-sweet Vidalia.

The world’s sweetest onion is grown not only in Vidalia itself but also in the 20 surrounding Georgia counties, where the soil is very special. It is low in sulfur, resulting in an onion that is sweeter than a can of Coke--and almost as expensive as a six-pack.

Bland Farms plants more than 600 acres of onions every August. The mature onions are harvested, by hand, in the spring. But right now the golf-ball-size baby versions are being pulled out of the earth. Best eaten within two weeks of harvest, these leek look-alikes are great in salads and stews. But they’re so gentle that they can be eaten out of hand like an apple. As the Blands say, “they only make you cry when they’re gone.”

Available through mid-April, 15 to 18 baby Vidalias cost $17.95 plus $2.45 for shipping and handling.