TAYUM, Abra (PIA) — Before dawn breaks, Loreto Tejero is already geared up with a small headlight, a bolo, an ecobag, and his dogs that go along with him in search for mushrooms priced from P400 to P500 per kilo.
The farmer from Pagpagatpat, Tayum has been gathering and selling wild mushrooms for ten years now.
Wild mushrooms or “u-ong” in local tongue, are in season these rainy months of July and August. This mushroom variety that grows from the wet forest grounds usually after the rains and thunderstorms, is an alternative source of livelihood for many Abrenian families.
“Narigat met ti ag-ala ti u-ong ta nasamek met ti bakir ken dalyasaten mi met dagita manu nga oras ken sinuwertehan met lang dayta. Adda metlang diayay matsambaham nga adu, adda met ta bassit,” shared Tejero.
[It’s hard to gather u-ong in the forested mountains which we have to traverse for hours. Foraging mushrooms is basically by chance, sometimes if you are lucky you gather many, in some instances just little.]
He said that they usually go foraging mushrooms before daylight so that they can still rest a bit before they begin work in the fields. For those who do not have work during the day, they start hunting for the elusive mushrooms as early as eight in the evening until three in the morning.
After spending two to three hours in the forest, Tejero said that the mushrooms are packaged in adso or skewered in bamboo strings and sold along the road or are ordered by bulk.
“Dakkel metlang ti maala mi kangrunaan kanyami nga awan ti pagtrabahuan na. Nu adu ket maribuan kami metlaeng. Ada diayay maswerte-ak ti maysa nga agpatnag umabot metlang dos mil,” he said.
[We can earn from foraging mushrooms especially for us who have no work. There was one time I was lucky I was able to earn P2,000.]
The u-ong is a mushroom variety that grows from the wet forest grounds, especially after the rains and thunderstorms. It is local delicacy that can be cooked as adobo or mixed in dinengdeng or local vegetable stew.
Abra is an agriculture-based province where most residents rely on farming and fishing along the Abra river and its tributaries for food and livelihood. (JJPM, PIA-Abra)
