Have T@b will travel: Where does cork come from?

So who out there thought that cork came from the entire tree itself? That one must cut down the tree to obtain the cork? Ok, maybe it was just us? Since arriving in Portugal we have discovered the truth, the cork comes from the bark! It is actually considered vegetable tissue! So one might think, why is it endangered if it is a renewable product? Well, the answer is that it is only endangered because man has decided to switch from traditional cork bottle stoppers to plastic and twist tops, slowly driving out the demand for cork products. 70% of the bark goes to cork stopper production, and because it is slowly being made obsolete, the trees are not being cultivated. Kind of sad right?! So all of you out there that thought you were doing the tree a favour by only purchasing twist offs or plastic corked wines. Stop now! Cork harvesting is one of the most environmentally friendly agricultural processes out there! Here in Portugal they don't use any kind of machinery. The skill is done completely by hand and is passed down from generation to generation. The workers who strip the cork are called Tiradors and work in pairs. The bark is stripped away every 9 to 10 years and takes 3 harvests before the cork is deemed suitable for wine corks! The first 2 harvests are used for things like flooring, insulation, even shoes, hats and furniture! The trees can be valuable for over 200 years! It is amazing the things you learn while travelling! I thought we were doing the politically correct thing buying a bottle of wine with a plastic stopper, I even thought it was taboo to consider cork flooring. The thing is, we were only jeopardizing these trees! I could go on and on about this unique tradition, and the important roll these trees play in Europe's ecology, but instead, if you would like to learn more about these old trees, take a look at this short video from the BBC!