Vidalia onion grower Bland Farms, Glennville, Ga., is celebrating 70 years of farming.
Though the company’s roots go farther back, the turning point was in 1982, when current Bland Farms president Delbert Bland and his father started growing Vidalia onions on five acres. Since then, Bland Farms has become a well-known name for the sweet onions.
Accomplishments for the company include, according to a news release:
- Expansion of onions into a year-round supply, with onions from Texas, California, Peru, Nevada and Mexico;
- Adding sweet potatoes in 2014;
- Establishing the Raymond D. Bland Scholarship for Agriculture, rewarding students who are pursuing an agricultural related field of study;
- Donating 4,000 pounds of onions a week through America’s Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia, which distributes food donations to 300 agencies in southeastern Georgia.
- Donations to the Breast Cancer Research Association in October, and pink packaging to bring awareness of breast cancer.
- Expanding Vidalia onion shipping west of the Mississippi River in the 1980s; and
- Establishing a Vidalia onion-branded program for processed foods.
Bland Farms is a family business, with Delbert’s sons Troy and Landis, and his wife Sara, as well as other family members. Like his father, Delbert plans to pass the business down to Troy and Landis.
