Tina Collins and her husband Ronny operate Collins Family Farms in Cobbtown. The small southeast Georgia community is in the heart of the 20-county area defined by the Georgia Legislature as where onions grown can be labeled as “Vidalia.”
The Collinses grow 500 acres of sweet onions. This year’s Vidalia onion crop started out as seeds of granex yellow onions, planted in fields in September and October. After about eight weeks in the ground, the seeds have sprouted. The seedlings are pulled by hand, trimmed and moved to production fields, where they will grow to full size.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
“We try to have the seedlings in the production fields by November,” Tina Collins said, “and around mid-April we are clipping the greens as the necks get weak and begin to fall over, and we leave the onions to dry out in the field.”
When the onions come out of the field, they go into bins in the packing shed to continue drying. When ready, the onions are graded and then bagged to be sold.
The crop can go to market before the official packing date for Vidalias, but they’ll just be Georgia “sweet onions.” They can’t be labeled “Vidalias” until a date determined by the state Department of Agriculture, in consultation with the Vidalia Onion Advisory Board.
Ronny Collins, who was born and grew up in Cobbtown in a family that raised tobacco and cattle, is one of the 13 members of that advisory board. He started growing sweet onions in 1980 on 10 acres of family land. His wife worked alongside him in a family insurance agency until she decided to join her husband in the world of agriculture in 2006.
Credit: Allison Russo-Alesi
Credit: Allison Russo-Alesi
In 2008, she founded Vidalia Sweet Produce, which is certified as 100 percent woman-owned by the National Women Business Owners Corp. It’s a designation that she welcomed and one she hopes will encourage other women to take leadership positions in the field.
“The produce business is tough, but don’t ever think you can’t do it,” Collins said, “because you can.”
She said her husband “is the farmer and makes all the production decisions. I decided to expand what we were doing and wanted diversity, so I decided to get into watermelons.”
Not wanting to let their fields lie fallow, the Collinses plant peanuts in the fields after the onions are harvested. They also grow sweet potatoes, as a sort of hobby crop, while waiting to start the sweet onion growing cycle again.
“What makes our sweet onions special is the lack of sulfur in the soil,” Tina Collins said. “Each year, I experiment with sweet onion varieties. This year, I’m going to try an earlier sweet onion variety and see how that does for us.”
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
The Collins family grows sweet red onions and white ones, too. Tina Collins said they started branching out from sweet yellow onions because Sweet Vidalia Produce is positioning itself to supply all colors of sweet onions to its retail customers year-round.
“I like red onions and our customers in Canada love them,” she said. “When you go to the grocery store, you see white onions, yellow onions, sweet onions, red onions, and to make it easier for buyers, we want to supply everything they need.”
Vidalia Sweet Produce sells onions under its own brand as well as private label brands to retailers, including Kroger, Aldi, Wegmans and Costco. When the Vidalia onion season ends around Labor Day, they import sweet onions from Peru, then Mexico and then Texas. When the Texas crop is done, it’s time for Vidalia onions again.
You might think the family would tire of onions, but Tina Collins said they eat them every day. “I don’t eat them raw, but Ronny does. He eats sweet onions like apples. I cook with them, and I put them in everything. Last night, we had baked squash and onions.”
Sign up for the AJC Food and Dining Newsletter
Read more stories like this by liking Atlanta Restaurant Scene on Facebook, following @ATLDiningNews on X and @ajcdining on Instagram.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
