Corks and how it's made

[RCGoodin]

Please read and like this thread if you've appreciated it's content.

It's part of our hobby that I didn't know about.

Enjoy and happy fermenting.

http://www.kuriositas.com/2013/11/cork-harvest-for-patient-farmer.html

 

[HenryMae]

Great article, thanks for sharing.
I knew very little about corks.

 

[Runningwolf]

Great post. I didn't realize the other uses like in Badminton and baseballs.

 

[sour_grapes]

Interesting!

When they referred to the trees as "Cork Oaks," a little light bulb went off over my head. The genus of oak trees is Quercus. I.e., our American white oak is Quercus alba, whereas French oak is Quercus robur, etc.

I suddenly had a hunch that Quercus led to "cork." Indeed, this is the etymology:

Middle English: from Dutch and Low German kork, from Spanish alcorque ‘cork-soled sandal,’ from Arabic al- ‘the’ and (probably) Spanish Arabic qurq, qorq, based on Latin quercus ‘oak, cork oak.’

In case you were wondering, the cork oak is Quercus suber. Good thing for winemaking that we have oak trees, huh?

 

[Pumpkinman]

Very cool!

 

[Duster]

Interesting
Thanks for sharing

 

[pjd]

Thanks, I loved the article! Learned a lot.

 

[terroirdejeroir]

Hmmm, I always thought stripping the bark of a tree would kill it. How does that work?

 

[JohnT]

One thing...

Whenever we talk about cork, I always seems that Portugal is the only place where it is grown. I am surprised that there is none that is domestically produced (we have just about every type of climate).

 

[DirtyDawg10]

Interesting article! Thanks!

 

[Tsutt]

Great article thanks for the share!

 

[sour_grapes]

One thing...

Whenever we talk about cork, I always seems that Portugal is the only place where it is grown. I am surprised that there is none that is domestically produced (we have just about every type of climate).

I've wondered that, too. It also seems hard to imagine that the Iberian Peninsula could supply ALL of the cork needs for ALL of the world, so you'd there there would be some impetus to grow it elsewhere, too.

Edited to add: Oh, the article points out (upon re-reading it) that about half of the world's cork comes from the Iberian Peninsula. Still, half is a lot!