To Be Continued

Thanks to the Growing Popularity of Etag, Cured Meat Now Represents Something Bigger

- Angelo Comsti

It’s an ungodly hour, but 50-year-old Leoncio Malidom is already up. He does his best not to make any noise—at the risk of waking up the rest of his family—as he makes his way to the backyard to tend to the meat in his makeshift smokehouse.

In darkness, he grabs just enough pieces of pinewood his frail and weary arms can carry and throws them into the dying fire. It’s a routine he has gotten used to. It has disrupted his sleeping habit, but he wouldn’t trade the chore for anything else as it has been his family’s main source of livelihood for the past seven years.

SLEEPLESS IN SAGADA

Malidom has given up farming in order to produce etag, a generations-old Sagada specialty. With the rich soil and ideal weather of the Mountain Province, planting a myriad fruits, vegetables, and heirloom rice is often the default livelihood of the community. However, Malidom saw a better opportunity in making what people loosely describe as smoked mountain ham. After all, the process is quicker and the returns are promising. Besides, not a lot of locals are doing it for commercial sale, and so Malidom thought that it would make for better business. He explains, “Mas okay ito kasi sa farming maghihintay ka pa ng apat na buwan [bago maka-harvest]. Ito mas mabilis.”

However, the transition wasn’t as smooth and quick as he thought it would be. He is a member of the Kankanaey tribe from whom the etag is believed to have originated from yet he admits to starting everything from scratch. He didn’t learn the craft from anyone. And from what little that he knew about the process, Malidom had to go through several trial and error sessions until he was satisfied with what he came up with.