Harvest

Cork extraction.

Harvest (Cork extraction) can be done in the warm season, between the months of May and August. Only specialized personnel is involved. The only used tool is a typical kind of axe, especially designed for that purpose.

Cork oaks are submitted to extraction not before 10 years since last time. 10 or more years are necessary in order to ensure that the external skin is sufficiently re-grown and it is thick enough to be used in the following production processes.

Cork extraction must be perfectly done, in order to avoid any damage to “phellogen”, that is the tissue which produces new cork cells.

Pieces of cork bark just extracted are sent to dedicated yards where they will be set for the seasoning, before any utilization.

 

THE SEASONING

After being extracted, the cork is selected and set in rectangular piles, where it can get seasoned in open air, in a time not shorter than 12 months.

A yard of seasoning cork