Tag Archives: Portugal

Cork Forests: Actually, Money Does Grow on Trees

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Think about the last bottle of wine you drank. Was it sealed with a natural cork? A synthetic plastic closure? A screw top cap? Where does cork come from, and what’s with all the buzz about cork trees being endangered? To investigate, we ventured off to Alentejo, a rural region in south-central Portugal, and one of the world’s largest sources of cork oaks. All told, Portugal produces about 75% of the world’s cork, and about 75% of this goes into wine bottle stoppers. About 33% of all cork trees grow in Portugal, and 95% of these are in the Alentejo region.

At Herdade da Maroteira, Philip Mollet guided us on a tour of his 540 hectare farm. Much of the land is forested, with approximately 2/3 covered by cork forest, 1/3 covered by stone oaks, and some cleared land for vineyards and livestock. Mollet is a 5th generation farmer, whose family originally hailed from Britain. As the story goes, in the beginning there were two brothers who were on their way to Australia. They stopped in Porto to make repairs on their boat and look for cork stopper resources. The brothers ended up traveling to Alentejo, where they found this particular cork farm. One brother continued on to Australia, while the other stayed in Portugal. Later on, the brothers arranged for a cultural swap, with one brother sending eucalyptus to Portugal and the other brother sending cork acorns to Australia. However, the acorns that were sent were sterilized—nothing like a little sibling rivalry to help foment family feuds!
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Lisbon’s Pastéis de Belém: Religiously Good?

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Lisbon, seaside port and the commercial heart of Portugal. For centuries, Portugal wielded outsize influence beyond its borders through a vigorous policy of mercantilism and colonial exploration. From these waters, Vasco da Gama captained the first ships to set sail directly from Europe for India. Other explorers would reach the shores of South Africa, China and Japan. “Look, we have Spain on one side, water on the other. So everyone either has to fight, to conquer, or face the ocean and see what’s beyond,” said our guide, Victor Lamberto, head of Slow Food’s Alentejo chapter.

Unsurprisingly, this thirst for international travel resulted in lots of foreign exchange—in food, in language and in culture. As Lamberto guided us through the mosaic-covered streets and tiled walls of Lisbon, he remarked, “Lisbon has always attracted people from all over. Here, you do not find traditional Portuguese food, but a mix of influences. The Portuguese were the first to take food and flavors from one place to another in a global manner.” Today, the Japanese use the Portuguese words tempura for battered, fried foods and pan for bread, while the African chili pepper piri piri is commonly used in Portuguese cuisine.
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Travel Note: Portugal and Extremadura, Spain

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Not sure how this managed to happen, but I’ve only got three more weeks left on the continent. (But wait, I haven’t even gone to Rome yet!) Of course, the UNISG masters students will be going out with a bang—for our last stage, we’ll be taking a 2-week long excursion to Portugal and Spain. We start off in Lisbon, then gradually move toward the Spanish border region of Extremadura, traveling east to Évora, Cáceres, Mérida and finally, Seville. The foodstuffs look quite similar to Italian cuisine, with a lot of olive oil, wine, cheese and cured meats, but we are also making stops to investigate the production of pastéis de Belém (sweet pastries), herb liquors, paprika, and eating lunch at a zero-kilometer restaurant (with locally-sourced products).

After the Great Internet Drought that was Emilia-Romagna, I have to admit that the part I am most excited for is that we will have wifi at the hotel for 10 out of the 12 nights of this trip. I don’t have a problem, I swear. Also, it is going to be ridiculously warm, somewhere around 7-18 C (45-65 F). After a decade of suffering through New England, upstate New York and Chicago winters, I am relishing the fake Mediterranean “winter” this year. (We’ve gotten snow about two times in Italy so far.)

Here’s a sample itinerary for Friday, Feb. 18th:

7:30 – Breakfast
8:00 – Depart for Aldeia da Serra
9:00 – Walk in the Montado forest, meet with wine & honey producer
12:00 – Lunch at Aldeia da Serra
14:30 – Santiago de Rio de Moinhos cheese producer
17:00 – Redondo: honey producer and tasting of traditional products
19:00 – Azaruja: unique cured meats and other local products (Slow Food project)
20:00 – Arrival at Evora, dinner on your own

Oy veh, I don’t speak a word of Portuguese, and I stopped studying Spanish in 5th grade, when I switched to French. But I’ve heard that speaking Italian to Spaniards works out rather well, so let’s see if I can make them think I’m Italian. (Random note: when I was learning my numbers in Spanish, my mom attempted to learn with me, and the mnemonic she used to remember “ocho” was 污糟 wu zou, or “dirty” in Cantonese.)

See ya’ll from the Iberian peninsula!