Sunday, October 27, 2019 Alentejo
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| Cork oak, with bark stripped from the cork harvest |
The Alentejo region is the home of the world's most important area for growing cork. The cork tree is a member of the oak family and is known in Portugal as "sobreiro", has been grown commercially in the region for more than 300 years.
The cork grows in Mediterranean forests, but has also been cultivated, with the areas between the trees typically used for grazing, or sometimes co-grown with citrus, grapevines or olives. The cork tree must be 25 years old before it is harvested.
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| A lush grove of cork trees amidst the red dirt of the Alentejo region |
The bark of the cork-oak is harvested by teams of men using hand-axes. No mechanical method has yet been invented that will allow the harvest to be achieved as effectively. The stripping of the bark is performed only in midsummer, when the bark can be removed more easily. The cork-oak is the only tree known that will allow this regular stripping of bark without damage, but you must wait every 8 to 10 years to harvest the bark. Some of the trees are marked with white paint numbers on their trunks to tell when the next harvest is due. The harvest of one mature tree provides sufficient bark to produce about 4,000 wine bottle corks. France is the biggest importer of cork - of course, for their wine industry.
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| Bark stripped from a mature cork tree |
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| Bark of the cork-oak that hasn't been stripped |
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| Cork trees and the man-made lake formed by the Alqueva Dam, which provides hydroelectric power and irrigation |
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