Portugal and the Cork Forest

Portugal, especially the southern part, has land that is covered with cork forest such as in the first image.  


In the years before our visit, Portugal produced over half of the entire world's production of cork.  A lot of cork is used simply as bottle stoppers. However, the substance has many other uses (for example, building insulation and industrial gaskets). Ann and  Beth both purchased cork pocketbooks or cork wallets on the trip.

 The cork is made from the outer bark of the cork oak. A tree is harvested about every 10 years. The year after harvesting, the tree has a reddish color where the cork was removed as in the second image.

Sometimes, a large amount will be removed from a single tree (second image) or sometimes, parts of many small trees will be removed (third image).

All images from the internet. 

The economy in Portugal had been improving in the past few years before this post. The unemployment rate hit about 17% in 2013 but by late 2017 was down to 8.5%.