Vidalia Weeps

This was not a sweet winter for growers of Vidalia onions. The same freezing weather that devastated so much of northern Florida’s vegetable crops hit their south Georgia fields. This year’s harvest might be as little as half as much as predicted. As a result, look for slightly higher prices through the season, which begins in early- to mid-May.

The fact that prices will jump only a bit is probably a result of the rapid growth of the Vidalia business. Just six years ago, only 4,000 acres were approved for the Vidalia label (and even then, some old-timers were complaining that it was too much). This year, about 16,000 acres in 20 counties will be producing onions under the Vidalia designation.

Because of that, the harvest should be only about 25% to 30% less than last year. And even after that disastrous winter, it will still be almost double 1988’s crop.

Vidalias are also available for a much longer period of time than before. Not so long ago, you could get them just a couple of weekends a year, when the trucks from Georgia would roll into town. Now, they’re selling almost year-round, thanks to controlled atmosphere storage--the same way apples are kept.

So big is the sweet onion business getting that two major national produce firms have moved in. Both Dole and Ocean Spray (through its Mystic Farms subsidiary) will begin selling Vidalia onions this year. In fact, Dole has contracted with Hendrix Farms in Metter, Ga.--the second-biggest grower in the area--to supply it with onions.

Clearly, things have moved far beyond the roadside stand stage.

Although Vidalias are still the biggest name in sweet onions, California’s own Imperial Sweets are the closest to us. The Imperial Valley grows the same variety of onion as the Vidalia (and, by the way, the Maui onion and the Texas 1015). Harvest of its 4,000 acres will start next week.

That’s 10 days or so earlier than normal. While Georgia onions shivered this winter, California’s basked in the sun. “I figure I’d better quit waiting for winter to come,” says Steve Sharp, manager of the Imperial Sweet Onion Commission. “I guess we missed it.”

When you’re buying sweet onions, check carefully for any mold or soft spots. Because they are much higher in water content than most onions, they spoil faster.

And remember, they’re for eating raw. In reality, sweet onions contain less sugar than plain brown onions; we call them “sweet” only because they’re also lower in the pungent sulfurous compounds that make it hard to eat a regular onion raw. Since those compounds cook off anyway, for cooking purposes you might as well save some money and use regular onions.