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Similar Sweet onion, French onion dip, Blooming onion, Yellow onion, Red onion | ||
Vidalia onion harvesting is underway
A Vidalia onion (/vᵻˈdeɪliə/ or /vaɪˈdeɪliə/) is a sweet onion of certain varieties, grown in a production area defined by law of the U.S. state of Georgia and by the United States Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).
Contents
The varieties include the hybrid yellow granex, varieties of granex parentage, and other similar varieties recommended by the Vidalia Onion Committee and approved by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
The onions are named Vidalia because of where they are grown: Vidalia, Georgia. The growing of Vidalia onions there started in the early 1930s. The different varieties are unusually sweet, due to the low amount of sulfur in the soil in which the onions are grown.
The Vidalia onion was named Georgia's official state vegetable in 1990.
Legislation
Georgia's state legislature passed the "Vidalia Onion Act of 1986" which authorized a trademark for "Vidalia Onions" and limits the production area to the following counties of Georgia that have or any subset as defined by the state's Commissioner of Agriculture. The current definition includes:
Since Georgia statutes have no legally-binding effect outside Georgia, producers and handlers meeting the standards defined by Georgia law requested, and the United States Department of Agriculture promulgated, a Federal Marketing Order which defined the production area as a matter of United States federal law.