Traveling exposes us to new things……exploration and adventure broadens our minds and enriches our lives. I was fortunate to have been traveling for the past three weeks, the majority of that time was spent in Portugal. We stayed outside of Lisbon in a small town, Coruche. The town sits along a beautiful river and has quaint cobblestone streets. I have family there so we got to live like locals. I was most fascinated with the trees that grow in the area. Three specific trees caught my attention. The most fascinating was the Cork tree.
When you’re popping a cork out of a bottle of wine have you wondered where that cork came from? I’m guessing most people don’t realize that cork comes from a tree. The best part, I got to see workers harvesting the cork trees. “WOW”! I know the pictures won’t do it justice. (wish I had better pictures to share….on my to do list take a photography class) As you drive through the countryside you see cork trees everywhere, some trees are very dark (almost ready to harvest again) and some trees are a brilliant orange-ish color (just been harvested).
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| One of the oldest trees we saw. The older the tree the further up they will go to cut the cork. |
Fascinating Facts about Cork Trees:
- Cork grows well in this region of Portugal because it is hot and dry.
- The harvesting season is from late May until early August (we caught the tail end)
- Cork trees are harvested every 9 years. After the trees are harvested they spray paint the year on the tree, so in 9 years they can come back and harvest again.
- Each tree is harvested by hand, two workers per tree and several workers on the ground picking up the cork and loading it on the wagons to take to the cork factory. The more skilled the workers are, the larger the piece of cork they will harvest from the tree and the more money they will get paid. They use an ax to cut and peel the cork carefully from the tree trunk.
- Trees must be about 25-30 years old before the first good harvest, they live for about 200 years and are a species of Oak.
- The biggest threat to these amazing trees are fire and theft. Normally owners will hire guards to watch over cork trees that will be harvested soon.
- Portugal produces about 62% of all cork followed by Spain and Italy
Close up of tree trunk
Besides wine bottles, cork is also used for many other things, such as flooring, bulletin boards, musical instruments and fishing floats, just to name a few. I even saw a pair of shoes made out of cork!
