Where does cork – like the cork used to make this… er… cork – come from?

Fred, once again demonstrating that after 40 years on this show, he pretty much knows everything, says that cork comes from cork trees. Of course he’s right. Fred’s always right. Especially when he’s cribbing off a Post-It note hidden behind the table.

Cork comes from the bark of a tree. Now, stripping the bark off a tree would usually kill it, but the trees cork comes from are different.

This is a cork oak tree, and it’s one of very few trees that can regrow its bark.

So cork farmers can hack off the bark, and the tree will – eventually – grow it back.

That makes cork a genuinely sustainable product, but let Gail explain How the process works, because there are still some surprises.

The first time you strip the bark off a cork tree, you get… pretty much nothing of any use at all.

So the first crop of cork is… chucked away.

What the farmers do, however, is note the year they harvested the bark on the tree – in this case, 2005.

“Hang on,” I can hear you say, “It’s 2006!” Well spotted! See, this series of How2 was filmed in Spring 2005 – a year ago! – and was edited and ready to be shown from the Summer. Unfortunately, CITV didn’t have a slot for it, so it’s been sitting on a shelf until now. The strange world of TV, eh?

Sorry, Gail. On with the How!

So, having marked the tree, the cork farmers wait… nine years. Yes, nine years.

Off comes the bark, and this time the cork is slightly better quality. Good enough for:

Floor tiles. You might have seen these in DIY shops – or maybe you have some in your home.

What next? Well, you have to wait for the bark to grow back again. Which, yes, takes nine years.

So here we are, it’s 2023, the tree has grown another fresh layer of bark, and Gail is aging remarkably well.

Off comes the bark again – just the third harvest from this tree, but finally, the cork is of superb quality.

Here it is – the kind of cork that’s used to make the corks that go into wine bottles. The tree goes back to growing more bark, the farmers go back to waiting another nine years, and the whole cycle repeats for 150 years or more. Though presumably with different farmers.

And here’s a lump of cork bark, modeled by Fred.

It’s lovely and light, soft and spongy, not like the rough bark you might expect.

To make a bottle cork, you clean the bark up a bit, and then punch out a plug of it. Gail demonstrates:

She gouges out a plug of bark…

Voila! That’s how corks are made!