Onion growers on the shores of Peipsi järv (Lake Peipus), one of the most significant areas in Estonia where the vegetable is harvested, are reporting a relatively healthy crop this year, though the onions are not particularly bit this time.
Unlike with some other fruit and vegetables, rainy conditions such as those seen this summer are not usually detrimental to onion harvests and in fact can do some good here.
However, the crop this year near Peipsi järv varies: Those whose fields lie on higher ground got a very good harvest after years of lackluster ones, whereas other farmers did not fare so well.
Prices are unaffected in any case – the price of onions this year will remain in the €3 to €3.50 per kilo range.
Onion growing in Lüübnitsa, near Lämmijärv, a lake to the south of Peipsi järv and connected to it, is a job handed down from generation to generation.
One local grower, Svetlana, told “Aktuaalne kaamera” she has followed in the footsteps of her mother, now 87, and had relocated there from the capital to take over the bulk of the hard work.
Svetlana reported a bumper harvest this year despite individual onions being modest in size.
“This year the onions are not large, but there are a lot of them. There are 5–6 onions per bunch, and otherwise, the onions are good.”
Local resident Nadežda Jeršina similarly inherited the trade from her mother, and has relocated from Tallinn with her husband.
“We had a lot of rain. My field was completely submerged. But when the rains went away and the onion heads started to form, everything gradually got back in order,” Nadežda explained.
The nearby Lüübnitsa onion and fish fair, which took place on Saturday, is one of the main sales outlets for local growers.
On the buyers’ side was Jaanus, who had traveled from Võru. “I think I otherwise would not have come, but I saw on Facebook that there is a fair in Lüübnitsa. I called a friend and said ‘let’s go take a look.’ Actually, I came to the fair more for the garlic, as you cannot get normal garlic in the store right now, but then the onions and dried fish also caught my eye,” he said.
Another fair-goer was Moonika, who traveled from Harju County. She said she has already been coming to the event every year for nearly a decade, and bulk buys each time, reselling the haul later.
“We put a post on Facebook, where people can write how much of something each person wants. Then we add up the numbers and come here to take them from different growers. This year we are buying almost 800 kilos of regular onions, 25 separate kilos of red onions, and 50 kilos of garlic,” she noted.
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