Cork: Much More Than A Stopper

A story told by Luisa Pitadas.

 

- Luisa Pitadas

This story begins in my yard where several cork oaks are growing. We didn’t plant them, maybe a blue jay did. The blue jay stores and hides acorns, and sometimes it forgets where it placed them. When this happens, some of them turn into beautiful trees.

Our older cork oak is about 17 years and it is already so big that my kids, with the help of their father and grandfather, built a treehouse on top.

When our cork oak reaches his 25th anniversary, between May and August, it will be ready for the first harvesting of the bark. By using just an axe and their bare hands specialised workers will harvest planks of cork without causing any harm to the tree. This work is one of the most well paid agricultural works in the world. Under the bark, the trunk is orange and will turn brown over time. After 9 years the oak tree will regenerate its bark and be ready to be harvested again. This second harvest is called Secundeira (meaning “second” in Portuguese). After another nine years, our cork tree will be ready to be harvested for a third time, a step called Amadia. At that point, the tree will be 43 years old, and finally the cork will have the quality standards required to be turned into a cork stopper. From then on it will be harvested every 9 years. After the harvest, the bark planks are left to rest for 6 months, then they will be ready to be worked.