Besides giving tours at the Peipsi Old Believers Museum, Lilli Tarakanov also grows Peipsi onions in the village of Kolkja. She said that the heaps of onions in her nursery were at least twice as high last summer.

"The onion crop is less abundant this year and the tubers are smaller, which reduces the tonnage. The harvest is very, very small," she said.

Peipsi onions are cultivated according to almost 200-year-old traditions in high pine forests and it is a difficult and multi-stage craft. This year's smaller harvest has meant that the price of onions has risen.

"€4 — this onion is a real quality! We guarantee that it will last throughout the winter season; we are currently receiving calls from customers who have recently used up the last of their onions from the year before," onion grower Ekaterina, said.

"Last year the onion was bigger, this year it is a little smaller. But that's okay, we will sell it. I have many regular clients who buy onions from me. They either visit me here or I deliver onions to their doorstep. This is because some people get tricked into buying onions on the market which are labelled as Peipsi onions, when in fact, they are not," Maria Svinkova said.

"Peipsi onions are sold at Tartu and Tallinn markets|: people want to buy our onions but they end up purchasing foreign ones at the same price, despite our hard work," Ekaterina said.

Although onions are typically sold on the Peipsi shore in mid-July, this year's harvest was postponed by weeks. As a result, onion sales are yet to gain momentum in the age-old villages along the roadsides. Sellers are looking forward to the weekend. It coincides with Peipsi Food Street, the biggest food festival in the area.

"It's rather quiet at the moment. Those who have the time are trying to sell (the onions), because it is risky to wait for tomorrow, whether people will come or not. It makes sense to start selling early on, if there is something to sell," Tarakanov said.

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