Procuring Bamboo in Santa Ignacia

Some weeks back, we were looking for a supplier of bamboo poles.

The long and winding road!

You see, the family business processes these raw materials and turns them into handicrafts, of course with the help of local craftsmen.

From pieces for burning, to pretty pieces for home and office.

Typically, these things are made into place mats, fencing materials, a variety of native baskets like the bakke and bilao.  I've heard some years back that there's a guy somewhere in town who still makes tiklis (in Ilocano; in Tagalog they're known as kaing) baskets.

A bilao with lumpia wrappers. Image found in http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/marketmans-quest-for-the-thinnest-lumpia-wrappers

The sad truth is that it's a fading tradition.  The government has made efforts to address the revival of folk crafts in the form of livelihood training seminars. One example is that conducted in the neighboring town of Mayantoc some years ago by the Department of Trade and Industry Tarlac.

There's a guy somewhere in town who used to make place mats for us.

Place mats sold by Woodinspirations Crafts back in Likha ng Central Luzon 2015.

Now on to Santa Ignacia's kawayan.  This place, most especially the barrios, is actually littered with clumps of kawayan. Locals know where to get these, and there's widespread belief that rabong is easily pilfered by neighbors. LOL

The trouble with procuring kawayan for commercial use is that it's usually planted in ancestral lands of families, meaning it's shared property.  You wouldn't know who to pay upon purchasing good ones.  A harvester told us that there are lands within the municipality that's really abundant with bamboo, and he couldn't harvest cause the land owners will probably just fight over the payment. This made it hard for us to find kawayan to use.

Eventually, we got a referral from one of our workers and we managed to get some good poles.  We purchased them for about 25 pesos for every 3 meters. It's about a hundred pesos for every pole, from base to tip.

From the Calipayan-San Jose road, it's a left turn onto a dirt road. The very same path we took on our way to Pikkan Falls a few years back.

Here are some photos on our way to order the kawayan:

It was a sunny morning.

We stopped by this area before a creek/pond.

Walked a bit.

Over the hills, and far away...

...Teletubbies come to play. LOLJK

Oh diba pang Teletubbies nga. Haha.

If only these kawayan were more accessible then processing them would be a whole lot easier. Oh if only.  Hopefully, they'll be easier to procure within the next few years.