Raw Wild Honey in Ifugao: Rare and Expensive
I’m just back from my 2nd trip to Ifugao province and I visit their markets. I’m lucky enough to get raw wild honey by chance and buy as much as I can afford and I’m keeping these in storage as medicine. I now have different colors: brown, orange and yellow. All taste different. All are expensive.
Raw wild honey is expensive because it is wild. The supply is limited and erratic. You are lucky if the tribes people sell you some from their mountains. They consume and keep what they need and sell to us low landers their excess, which is not much. It’s good that most low land people are not too aware of just how crazily medicinal raw honey is.
The Ifugao know how medicinal raw wild honey is. It is well known that raw wild honey is snapped up in the market when it gets there. I’m lucky because I keep looking for raw wild honey and keep asking for it.
The value of honey for the Ifugao was stressed when I was at the central provincial souvenir building and I chanced upon the display of eight small bottles of raw wild honey from hucbong. I decided to buy 5. I left some for other customers.
The two male Ifugao staff were both giggling. I asked what was funny. They said they had bought up with their own money a good amount of the raw wild honey that arrived yesterday. They were scrounging for more money to buy the rest of the raw wild honey, but I arrived and bought up almost all that was left. I did leave 3.
They both knew raw wild honey was superior and they did not care for the plentiful farmed honey in the lower shelves. They knew where Hucbong was, the source of the honey. And they actually met the natives who brought the honey to the center. They know it’s the real deal. If they had enough money, they would have bought all of the raw wild honey for themselves.
The staff said raw wild honey is used plain given to children who are sick with colds and coughs. They also give it to their fighting cocks when their fighting cocks have colds. No need for calamansi they said. Yeah, I’ve heard that story before that raw wild honey was basically medicine for their children.
Come to think of it, I should have bought the last 3 bottles as well.
