Every September down in Georgia, farmers start growing world-famous Vidalia sweet onions. First, onion seeds are germinated in a controlled environment, then the seedlings are planted by hand in the fields to grow over the winter. In mid-April, the onions are harvested by hand and shipped all over the country.
Last Thursday, a truck-load of Vidalias arrived in Clinton where they were sold by Joel Semler, Zach Hill, Bud Eason and Ken Cox of the Golden Valley Shrine Club outside Ace Hardware.
“Rain or shine, we’re selling onions,” Joel said.
Every year, the Golden Valley Shrine Club orders 500 bags of Vidalia onions, Joel said. They went on sale last Friday for $12 each. By Friday afternoon, the Shriners had sold 375 bags of onions. Usually by Sunday they have 6 or 8 bags left, Joel said, but this year, sold out by mid-afternoon Saturday.
“Every year, we get calls after the sale asking “Do you still have any onions?” Zach said.
The money from onion sales goes to the Ararat Temple in Kansas City, who handle the bookkeeping, returning about 3 and half percent, $350 to $400, to the Clinton club.
The Golden Valley Shrine Club puts the money they make towards local projects, they said, but there’s not a set charity. Last spring the club members replaced all the benches in front of the Clinton Chamber of Commerce, located in the old train depot.
One year, Joel said, the club paid for tuition to send Boy Scouts to summer camp.
“It’s where the need is,” Zach said.
Sales of Vidalia onions also help support Shriners hospitals for children. Joel said he used to drive the 17-passenger hospital van from Kansas City to the hospital in St. Louis, picking up children and an adult family member at pick-up points along I-70. The longest round trip he made was 12 hours.
“We picked up a lot of Amish,” he said of those he gave a ride to the St. Louis hospital.
Shriners St. Louis specializes in pediatric orthopedic surgery and research, he said, and also treats breathing problems, Joel said, recalling a passenger who Joel was afraid wouldn’t make it to the hospital.
Joel also drives a mini-car as part of the Shrine Club’s entry in parades.
“They are fun to drive and the kids love them,” he said. “They all have horns that make different sounds.”
It was a Georgia farmer in Toombs County who discovered in 1931 that the Granex sweet onions he grew were sweeter than those grown elsewhere. The Vidalia Onion Act of 1986 trademarked the product and limited the area where it could be grown, within a 35 miles radius of Vidalia, west of Savannah.
In 1990, the Vidalia onion became the official vegetable of Georgia. The town of Vidalia, known as “The Sweet Onion City,” has a Vidalia Onion Museum, a Vidalia Onion Hall of Fame, and a Vidalia Onion Festival, complete with a mascot, “Yumlon.”
“Pretty much all the people around Vidalia are associated with onion growing,” Joel said.
Because the harvesting is all done by hand, not by machine, there are no bruises on the onions, he said. And bags of onions are shipped soon after harvest, so don’t sit around a warehouse.
“They’re fresh,” Bud said.
Vidalia onions will last for months if stored in a cool, dry place. Zach said he stores his Vidalias in the crisper drawer in the refrigerator and they are good through Christmas. Joel said he used his last ones in February.
Pat Harrell of Clinton was one of the first customers to drive up and buy two bags of onions last Friday morning. Vidalia onions are wonderful, she said, saying she comes and gets some every year.
“I grill them and we eat them raw,” she said.
Zach and Joel, who joined the Golden Valley Shrine Club in 2012, said the Golden Valley Shrine Club has been selling Vidalia onions for 20 or more years. They didn’t know how long the Shriners have been involved selling Vidalias, but noted that the growers put special labels on the onion bags that are packaged for the Shriners, he said.
Georgia farmers attribute the sweetness of the Vidalia, aka the “caviar of onions,” to the low-sulfur soil and the rain-fall pattern. Vidalia onions contain 12.5 percent natural sugar, about the same as an orange, and 1.5 percent higher than an apple. In addition to a sweet, mild flavor, the Vidalia onion does not cause indigestion or bad breath.
For the 2024 season, growers in Georgia planted 11,000 acres of Vidalia onions. Each acre contains around 90,000 onion plants.
The Shrine Club also has a sweet legacy. When Joel wears his Shriner’s uniform, he said, people often come to him and say “I was a Shrine kid,” meaning they were treated at a Shrine Children’s Hospital.
For more information, go to the Golden Valley Shrine Club Facebook page.
