SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Terry Petty, recorder of the Ansar Shrine of Central Illinois, explained the group has been selling sweet Vidalia onions as a fundraiser for several years. These onions that grow only in 20 southeastern Georgia counties are a big hit for the group.

“Several of the Shriner groups choose them. Ansars have several different units and each club orders them and sells them. We got the onions in May,” Petty said. “They were early this year and they were sold within a couple of weeks.”

Sarah Bland of Bland Farms, headquartered in Glennville, Ga., said this year the Vidalias were earlier than ever. Many of the Ansar Shrine onions across the country come from Bland Farms, which is the world’s largest year-round grower, packer and shipper of sweet onions and the industry-recognized name for Vidalia Sweet Onions.

Bland Farms represents almost one-third of all Vidalia onions marketed. According to its website, Bland Farms and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital signed a three-year agreement totaling a minimum of $300,000. The contract “encompassed the ability to allow other produce growers to join this fight without having to meet the rigid requirements of having an individual agreement.”

Much of the proceeds from the Ansar Shrine of Central Illinois’ sales of the Vidalia onions stay right here in the Midwest. The money used for a variety of items but much of it, Petty said, goes to the Shriners Hospital in St. Louis. This hospital, though, is just a drop in the bucket for the many people the Ansar Shriners serve.

“We have 22 hospitals in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. We have three burn units,” Petty explained.

The Shriners began in the late 1800s and the central Illinois group has been headquartered in Springfield since 1914. Its building is located at 6th and Cook. Over the years, the onion sales have been a big hit and the Ansar Shriners have focused on Vidalia. But, an onion is an onion – right?

Not necessarily, Bland said: “According to Federal Marketing Order No. 955, Vidalia sweet onions must be grown in a specific 20-county region in southeastern Georgia to be sold under the Vidalia trademark.”

Bland explained Vidalia onions are a hybrid between a round Grano type and a flat Excell (or Bermuda) type; they are yellow, short-day onions grown during the shortest days of the year and mature as day length and temperatures increase in the spring. 

Bland and her husband, Delbert, raise the Vidalias for their sweet taste, and the onions are a recent addition to Bland Farms. “Dad was a farmer and his dad, my great-grandfather, was a pecan farmer. As a young girl, I loved to go out and work with him. I met Delbert and got married.

“I work as a nurse during the day, then in the packing shed at night packing our wonderful sweet Vidalias. My husband was the first out of our family to grow onions.”

The Blands started small with their onions. “We took out an ad in Southern Living. The ad said we would ship a box to the customer straight from the farm for $9.95. We got 1,000 orders and started shipping through the mail. That’s how our marketing started and now we are on a national level.”

The Vidalias that sell so well for so many Shriners have that sweet taste, Bland said, because of the Georgia soil. “What makes a Vidalia sweet is the soil, the temperature and the onion seed variety. The onions were harvested early this year; they were smaller, but wonderful.

“Our onions only make you cry when they are gone,” she quipped.

It didn’t take long for the onions to be sold for the Ansar Shrine. Until next year, they will remain only a sweet spring memory. For information about Bland Farms and its Vidalia onions, visit www.blandfarms.com

To learn more about events at the Central Illinois Ansar Shrine, log onto www.ansarshrine.com and for anyone interested in becoming a Shriner, visit www.beashrinernow.com