If you live in the South, you know what it means when you hear: ‘They had Vidalia Onions!‘. This is a special type of sweet onion, grown in Vidalia, Georgia- in fact you can’t even call sweet onions ‘Vidalia’ unless they are actually grown there. Listen, you won’t believe this but the Vidalia Onion is defined by the law of the state of Georgia and the United States and approved by the Secretary of Agriculture! That’s some more onion!

According to the Official Website for Vidalia Onions, they were accidently discovered in 1930 and are still hand-planted and handpicked. This onion is the pioneer of sweet onions. ‘Vidalia Onions aren’t just the most famous onion in the world; I think they may be the only famous onion in the world’, says Chef Bobby Flay.Vidalia Onions even have their own Wikipedia page which says: ‘The different varieties are unusually sweet, due to the low amount of Sulphur in the soil in which the onions are grown.’ – This highly prized, sweet onion is like no other! So, when we southerners whisper, ‘I found some vidalias!’… as if we have just discovered French Macaroons or it seems we have received a box of Jacques Torres Chocolates; it’s because these onions elevate a simple vegetable plate, a homemade hamburger sings and in late summer, slice a Vidalia so thin you can see through it, top a tomato sandwich with it …well, it’ll knock your socks off!  Now, that’s an ol’ saying for describing something that’s really good!

They fry up into the best onion rings you ever tasted ! The growing season is relatively short, and because of so much natural sugar in these onions, they do not store in the pantry for long periods of time. The Vidalias pictured here were brought in from Coot Partridge’s Annual Memorial Day picnic- where a man was frying Vidalia onion rings. Folks were eating them so fast he couldn’t keep up with it! The yellow onion in the photograph is of normal size- the Vidalias are as big as grapefruits! I keep taking beauty shots so I might as well share them with you-

Well…I’ll talk you to death, but I noticed that you can order Vidalia Onions online! So when you finish up here? You might want to ‘google it’ -order, find recipes and more, they won’t be around long! In the meantime, I’ve got some onions to fry!

Love y’all , Camellia

http://www.vidaliaonion.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidalia_onion