Bland Farms Celebrates 70 Years of Farming Tradition

Glennville, Georgia, September 4, 2018 – Bland Farms, located in Glennville, Georgia is celebrating their 70th anniversary of farming this year. For Delbert and his family, farming is a way of life. He and his wife Sandra have honored and grown the family business that was passed down to them from Delbert’s parents. Bland Farms has also been instrumental in growing the Vidalia® brand including being the first to successfully incorporate Vidalia® sweet onions into processed foods and a mail order business in the late 1980’s introduced the Vidalia® name to markets west of the Mississippi River.

Like his father did with him, Delbert is passing down the lessons of the family farm to his sons Troy and Landis. Wife Sandra and additional extended family also are involved in the day-to-day operations. The farm has been and will continue to be, a family affair.

In 1982 Delbert Bland and his late father Raymond began growing Vidalia® sweet onions on just five acres at Bland Farms in Glennville, Georgia. Today, Bland Farms is the largest shipper, packer and grower of sweet onions and represents a large amount of the entire Vidalia® crop annually. Recognizing and acting on the rising demand for sweet onions, Delbert expanded production outside of the Peach State, both domestically and internationally including Texas, California, Peru, Nevada and Mexico. These strategic growing partnerships have proven themselves to be extremely valuable, allowing Bland Farms to supply sweet onions year-round.

Seeing an opportunity to expand their produce offering, Bland Farms added sweet potatoes and began growing the Covington variety in the sandy soils of Georgia in 2014. Delbert has been quoted saying that he learns something new every year.

Through hard-work, perseverance and faith, Bland Farms has developed into a produce industry leader and it is also a way of life for them to give back to their community and industry. With the Raymond D. Bland Scholarship for Agriculture, Bland Farms seeks to reward students who have demonstrated similar qualities to those of Bland Farms and are in pursuit of an agriculturally related field of study.

The family is also a supplier with America’s Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia, a locally inspired, volunteer-driven non-profit food bank. Bland Farms provides 4,000 lbs. of onions weekly which is then distributed through 300 agencies to families in need throughout southeastern Georgia. During the month of October, Bland Farms packages sweet onions in pink packaging to bring awareness to Breast Cancer. In addition to the pink packaging, Bland Farms makes a yearly monetary donation to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.