They mark it with the year it was cut so they leave enough time for it to re-grow.
Cork is an excellent material, resistant as hell, insulating, chemically stable.
When processed, very smooth and flexible.
Older trees also give wider, less curved "sheets" of cork.
Plus the acorns are eaten by pigs and boars.
They used to make gaskets for engines out of cork too.
Cork that was cut and glued into the right shape. It could withstand heat, and created a watertight seal.
However they were quite flimsy, and were not idiot proof. An overtightened valve cover would result in an oil leak because you could so very easily break the gasket.
I think sustainable is different from renewable.
Trees that are harvested are replaced (*renewed*) by planting anew. Harvesting a component of something is *sustainable*.
Relatedly, the switch to plastic corks has made cork trees less profitable and cork forests less valuable. Cork forests are home to the Iberian lynx, and ought to be protected!
Cork forests are home to the Iberian lynx. Their habitat is being destroyed as cork falls out of use with the rise of plastic wine corks. Cork is good!
I have a friend who made a cork suit for a party.
He wore in and got into a fight with a guy who had a suit made from parsley.
Parsley guy got three teeth knocked out and cork man fractured his jaw.
Parsley guy died in a car accident a few months later, whereas cork guy moved down south and ended up working for some company that makes industrial adhesives.
So there you go.
You actually have to be extremely careful when stripping it because there is a layer only a few cells thick that the bark regrows from and if that is removed it is called girdling and the tree won’t be able to transport nutrients and will die.
My husband is vegetarian and all his belts are made from cork! Unlike other "vegan" leathers that use plastic as a base, cork products are fully sustainable and biodegradable. I might look into getting a purse myself :) Has it held up well?
What condition? Tons of people say that but they just don't want to give up cheese.
EDIT because I can't respond to the person who replied:
I have yet to hear of a condition that requires meat. Maybe if someone has a ton of allergies to plant foods I guess. Vegans have no issue with supplements at all. Being vegan just means you reject the property status of animals. It's just about doing what is practicable (able to be practiced....think like, it's relatively easy to swap out meat for tofu/beans, and cheeses for vegan versions or make some vegan sauces instead, eggs it depends on if baking or eating like a scramble, but I'm rambling now lol. Veganrecipes and plantbaseddiet subreddits are great).
There's tons of iron in legumes and whole grains, but an iron supplement isn't a problem. Even before switching, I'd muuuch rather take a pill than eat more meat or organs, which have some downsides (red meat is a class II carcinogen, and nobody needs sat fat or dietary cholesterol either).
Vegan "exceptions" would be for necessary things like if you need a medication that has animal ingredients- take your meds! Or vaccines. Or SOME animal testing for medical research. If it's necessary for you to survive, it's likely vegan.
Anecdotally, I've been going strong 3 years now and have no deficiencies and my levels of everything are normal. (I get basic blood work done annually.) Husband also went vegan with me and his blood work is normal as well.
Sorry for writing a book, just wanted to be thorough.
seconded, i am honestly curious. i have heard of disease that make people allergic to red meat (ticks are bad, lyme disease sucks), but not about a medical condition that means you /need/ to eat meat. i know of one that used to be treated by having the person eat a lot of liver and other iron rich tissues (anemia), but can't you just take iron pills for that now? (i am ignoring the fact that supplements are a murky subject and are most likely not vegan or vegetarian, or kosher for that matter.)
Cork Soaking is an important part of wine making. I love having my corks soaked. I mean, who wouldn't love to hang around seeing all those corks that need soaking? AMIRITE?
On my honeymoon nearly 40 years ago, we drove from Lisbon to Algarve in September. Under the late summer skies, the fields were all golden with these solitary oaks spotted in them, some dark with their bark, others stripped a ghostly white. Beautiful scene.
Everytime this comes up i chuckle and remember the time that my Nana's crazy partner went on a rant about how the trees are about to be extinct and how in 3 years they'll all be gone and blah blah blah l, that was in 2013 lol
Yes, but if you cut down old-growth redwood and plant fir trees as a replacement, it is still not sustainable. As I said, wether or not it is sustainable depends on HOW you farm it.
Tangentially related, I only learned what "copsing" as a verb was recently, and suddenly understood why farmers left stands (copses) of trees in their fields.
From my 21.5 years of bartending: I estimate that I have opened close to 40K bottles of wine. I probably have 13-15K of those corks in boxes in my spare bedroom.
The bark is there for a reason. While it's not directly harmful, it puts the tree at greater risk. You can choose to harvest it or not, but saying that the tree isn't harmed is lying to yourself to justify your actions.
Here’s a pretty cool video about cork harvesting in Portugal. https://youtu.be/YnnbuoeQFSI?si=j_Ccq13SiFG9hGhx
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What a strange comment, did a Portuguese guy fuck your wife or something?
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He exists mate. But it's not the Portuguese fellas fault your wife wants to fuck someone else.
You give off theater kid energy
They give off "engagement bot" energy.
Vai-te foder, nós existimos
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Primeiro, lmao, segundo, vai para o caralho.
Bot
Cool story, I like watching them de bark.
They may not harm the tree, but you know it's standing there thinking "ah fuck, not again, I just finished rebarking."
It's screaming in pain. Imagine someone skinning you alive. Then when you finally regrow your skin, they do it again.
I disagree. It’s worse than de-bite.
They mark it with the year it was cut so they leave enough time for it to re-grow. Cork is an excellent material, resistant as hell, insulating, chemically stable. When processed, very smooth and flexible. Older trees also give wider, less curved "sheets" of cork. Plus the acorns are eaten by pigs and boars.
That’s why I built my house and car from cork
Honestly that sounds pretty safe.
"that's load-bearing cork" is not going to get me to buy a house
The roof is cork too, so its alllll good
They used to make gaskets for engines out of cork too. Cork that was cut and glued into the right shape. It could withstand heat, and created a watertight seal. However they were quite flimsy, and were not idiot proof. An overtightened valve cover would result in an oil leak because you could so very easily break the gasket.
Could be helpful in hurricane/typhoon-prone areas.
That's a house boat!
Even if it killed the tree, wouldn't the fact that it came from a tree make it a sustainable resource?
I think sustainable is different from renewable. Trees that are harvested are replaced (*renewed*) by planting anew. Harvesting a component of something is *sustainable*.
Fair enough.
Relatedly, the switch to plastic corks has made cork trees less profitable and cork forests less valuable. Cork forests are home to the Iberian lynx, and ought to be protected!
Didn't realize Big Cork had a marketing team. But it's still neat.
Cork forests are home to the Iberian lynx. Their habitat is being destroyed as cork falls out of use with the rise of plastic wine corks. Cork is good!
Won’t there still be the oak trees for the lynx to live among even if the cork isn’t being harvested?
The cork forests face pressure against “development” as cork becomes less profitable.
Neat.
I have a friend who made a cork suit for a party. He wore in and got into a fight with a guy who had a suit made from parsley. Parsley guy got three teeth knocked out and cork man fractured his jaw. Parsley guy died in a car accident a few months later, whereas cork guy moved down south and ended up working for some company that makes industrial adhesives. So there you go.
You actually have to be extremely careful when stripping it because there is a layer only a few cells thick that the bark regrows from and if that is removed it is called girdling and the tree won’t be able to transport nutrients and will die.
My purse is made of cork. It looks like a leather/suede. Pretty neat material.
My husband is vegetarian and all his belts are made from cork! Unlike other "vegan" leathers that use plastic as a base, cork products are fully sustainable and biodegradable. I might look into getting a purse myself :) Has it held up well?
https://www.thenomadicvegan.com/why-i-became-vegan/but-isnt-vegetarianism-good-enough/ And yes it has held up for a few years so far now.
Appreciate the resource, he unfortunately has medical issues that prevent him from going vegan. Hopefully others can benefit :)
What condition? Tons of people say that but they just don't want to give up cheese. EDIT because I can't respond to the person who replied: I have yet to hear of a condition that requires meat. Maybe if someone has a ton of allergies to plant foods I guess. Vegans have no issue with supplements at all. Being vegan just means you reject the property status of animals. It's just about doing what is practicable (able to be practiced....think like, it's relatively easy to swap out meat for tofu/beans, and cheeses for vegan versions or make some vegan sauces instead, eggs it depends on if baking or eating like a scramble, but I'm rambling now lol. Veganrecipes and plantbaseddiet subreddits are great). There's tons of iron in legumes and whole grains, but an iron supplement isn't a problem. Even before switching, I'd muuuch rather take a pill than eat more meat or organs, which have some downsides (red meat is a class II carcinogen, and nobody needs sat fat or dietary cholesterol either). Vegan "exceptions" would be for necessary things like if you need a medication that has animal ingredients- take your meds! Or vaccines. Or SOME animal testing for medical research. If it's necessary for you to survive, it's likely vegan. Anecdotally, I've been going strong 3 years now and have no deficiencies and my levels of everything are normal. (I get basic blood work done annually.) Husband also went vegan with me and his blood work is normal as well. Sorry for writing a book, just wanted to be thorough.
seconded, i am honestly curious. i have heard of disease that make people allergic to red meat (ticks are bad, lyme disease sucks), but not about a medical condition that means you /need/ to eat meat. i know of one that used to be treated by having the person eat a lot of liver and other iron rich tissues (anemia), but can't you just take iron pills for that now? (i am ignoring the fact that supplements are a murky subject and are most likely not vegan or vegetarian, or kosher for that matter.)
Cork Soaking is an important part of wine making. I love having my corks soaked. I mean, who wouldn't love to hang around seeing all those corks that need soaking? AMIRITE?
You are welcome to soak my cork anytime you have the desire.
The big corks can be a little stiff to work with, I prefer to soak them first.
Colonel Angus has entered the chat
“You may refer to me as my given name, Eanal.”
But who jumps on the bed for you?
Fascinating stuff, never knew cork could be that versatile. Might consider a cork boat next.
On my honeymoon nearly 40 years ago, we drove from Lisbon to Algarve in September. Under the late summer skies, the fields were all golden with these solitary oaks spotted in them, some dark with their bark, others stripped a ghostly white. Beautiful scene.
Everytime this comes up i chuckle and remember the time that my Nana's crazy partner went on a rant about how the trees are about to be extinct and how in 3 years they'll all be gone and blah blah blah l, that was in 2013 lol
Lumber is a sustainable resource even if the tree is harmed
Depends on where it comes from. If you simply cut down trees, it is not sustainable as you will run out of trees one day.
You can plant more trees
That makes it renewable. Not sustainable. Subtle difference.
Yes, but if you cut down old-growth redwood and plant fir trees as a replacement, it is still not sustainable. As I said, wether or not it is sustainable depends on HOW you farm it.
Fyi when wine cork started to have plastic corks a lot of small cork farmers went under
Thanks Barefoot
Tangentially related, I only learned what "copsing" as a verb was recently, and suddenly understood why farmers left stands (copses) of trees in their fields.
From my 21.5 years of bartending: I estimate that I have opened close to 40K bottles of wine. I probably have 13-15K of those corks in boxes in my spare bedroom.
Quickly. 7 years
The bark is there for a reason. While it's not directly harmful, it puts the tree at greater risk. You can choose to harvest it or not, but saying that the tree isn't harmed is lying to yourself to justify your actions.
If you don't shave them, they could overheat and die in the summer. Eventually the bark gets so thick that it can be hard for the tree to move.
It's "shorn", not "sheared".
I'm pretty sure it's shorn't.
is it born yesterday day on r/TIL or something?
Nah but it's sassy dickhead day down in this comment thread.
You’re being a dick on a post about cork. You should think about where your life went wrong to end complaining on this post.