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Georgia Vidalia Sweet Onion

01:28 | Labels: Georgia, U.S. state foods

Georgia Vidalia Sweet Onion

Georgia Vidalia Sweet Onion

Georgia Vidalia Sweet Onion With Plants

Georgia Vidalia Sweet Onion

Georgia Vidalia Sweet Onion Plants

Georgia Vidalia Sweet Onion Plant

Georgia Vidalia Sweet Onion With Plants

Georgia Vidalia Sweet Onion Plants

A Vidalia onion is a sweet onion of certain varieties, grown in a production area defined by law in Georgia and by the United States Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The varieties include the hybrid yellow granex, varieties of granex parentage, or other similar varieties recommended by the Vidalia Onion Committee and approved by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

The onions were first grown near Vidalia, Georgia, in the early 1930s. It is an unusually sweet variety of onion, due to the low amount of sulfur in the soil in which the onions are grown. Mose Coleman is believed to be the person who discovered the sweet Vidalia Onion variety in 1931.

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 Georgia or any subset as defined by the state's Commissioner of Agriculture. The current definition includes:

The following thirteen counties: Emanuel, Candler, Treutlen, Bulloch, Wheeler, Montgomery, Evans, Tattnall, Toombs, Telfair, Jeff Davis, Appling, and Bacon.

Portions of the following seven counties: Jenkins, Screven, Laurens, Dodge, Pierce, Wayne, and Long.

In 1989, at the request of producers and handlers meeting the standards defined by Georgia law, the United States Department of Agriculture promulgated a Federal Marketing Order (CFR Title 7, Part 955) which defined the production area.

In popular culture

Country singer Sammy Kershaw released a song named 'Vidalia' in 1996 as a single from the album Politics, Religion and Her. It is a wordplay song about a woman named Vidalia who, the singer says, "always makes me cry."

The 1999 album Oh! The Grandeur, by American musician Andrew Bird, includes a song called 'Vidalia', an ode to the onion in question.

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Grits

06:00 | Labels: Georgia, U.S. state foods

Grits

Grits

Grits refers to a ground-corn food of Native American origin, that is common in the Southern United States and mainly eaten at breakfast. Modern grits are commonly made of alkali-treated corn known as hominy.

Grits are similar to other thick maize-based porridges from around the world such as polenta or the thinner farina. "Instant grits" have been processed to speed cooking.

The word "grits" derives from the Old English word "grytt," meaning coarse meal.This word originally referred to wheat and other porridges now known as groats in parts of the U.K.. Maize, unknown in Europe in the Middle Ages, is a food derived from corn (a New World plant) and "corn" had been used to describe wheat products in many European regions. "Grits" may be either singular or plural; historically, in the American South the word was invariably singular notwithstanding its plural form (cf. such food names as "spaghetti" or "linguine", likewise plural in form, but singular in use). Sometimes, grits are called sofkee or sofkey (from a native American Muskogee word).

Origins

Grits have their origins in Native American corn preparation. Traditionally, the hominy for grits was ground by a stone mill. The results are passed through screens, with the finer sifted materials being grit meal, and the coarser being grits. Many communities in the United States used a gristmill until the mid-twentieth century, with families bringing their own corn to be ground, and the miller retaining a portion of the corn as a fee. In South Carolina, state law requires grits and corn meal to be enriched, similar to the requirements for flour, unless the grits are ground from corn from which the miller keeps part of the product for a fee.

Three-quarters of grits sold in the U.S. are sold in the South, throughout an area stretching from Texas to Virginia, sometimes referred to as the "grits belt". The state of Georgia declared grits its official prepared food in 2002.Similar bills have been introduced in South Carolina, with one declaring:

Whereas, throughout its history, the South has relished its grits, making them a symbol of its diet, its customs, its humor, and its hospitality, and whereas, every community in the State of South Carolina used to be the site of a grits mill and every local economy in the State used to be dependent on its product; and whereas, grits has been a part of the life of every South Carolinian of whatever race, background, gender, and income; and whereas, grits could very well play a vital role in the future of not only this State, but also the world, if as Charleston's The Post and Courier proclaimed in 1952, "An inexpensive, simple, and thoroughly digestible food, [grits] should be made popular throughout the world. Given enough of it, the inhabitants of planet Earth would have nothing to fight about. A man full of [grits] is a man of peace."

In the South Carolina Low Country region the uncooked ground corn is referred to as "grist" and the cooked dish is "hominy." This should not be confused with the more usual usage of hominy.

Grits are usually either yellow or white, depending on the color of corn. The most commonly version found in supermarkets is "quick" grits in which the germ and hull have been removed. Whole kernel grits sometimes are called "Speckled." Grits are prepared by simply boiling the ground kernels into a porridge until enough water is absorbed or vaporized to leave it semi-solid.

Preparation

Whole kernel grits are prepared by adding five parts boiling water (seasoned with salt or sugar) to one part grits and cooking for 20 to 30 minutes. Grits expand when cooked and need periodic stirring to prevent sticking and lumps forming. Commonly served with grated cheese, butter, sausage,bacon, or red-eye gravy, they also are accompanied by fried catfish, salmon croquettes, and in the Low Country of coastal Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia, by shrimp as a traditional breakfast dish. Charleston-style grits are boiled in milk instead of water, giving them a creamy consistency.

Solidified cooked grits may be sliced and fried directly in vegetable oil, butter, or bacon grease, or they may be breaded in beaten egg and breadcrumbs first.

Other uses

Folk wisdom contends that dry grits, scattered where ants will eat them, can be used to kill them by causing them to 'explode' as the grits expand inside them. However, laboratory tests on fire ants have shown that grits in soybean oil and treated with pesticide may be used against fire ants. It is the pesticide, not the grits that kills the ants.

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