Looking to tour a cork farm in Portugal

Susan, hopefully you’ll get a reply with specifics on contacting a cork harvester or tour. Driving thru Portugal years ago (June 2002), we passed tree after tree, in various stages of stripped or regenerating bark, with numbers on the trees as some kind of identification. Never saw any people or machinery, just trees silently holding their places, and we hadn’t made an effort to delve further into the cork farming operations.

We did a bike tour during harvest time in France, and it was a busy time. We even got to clip some grapes that went into someone’s champagne. If you can visit with a cork arborist/farmer, that would be a pretty unique experience.

The first thing is - the cork forests are south of Lisbon, in the Alentejo region (for the most part). I don’t know of any cork forests north of Lisbon. And, June would likely be too early for the harvest as it’s usually in July.
All that said, you might have some luck inquiring around Evora. I visited the Amorim factory and watched the harvest a couple of summers ago but it was with a group. So, you might try contacting Amorim to see if they do individual tours or can refer you to someone who does them.

The earlier post about cork farms being in southern Portugal is correct, particularly near Evora. After reading many positive reviews, we've booked a tour with this place just east of Evora:

www.corktrekking.com
https://www.instagram.com/corktrekking/
https://www.facebook.com/corktrekkinglda
Herdade da Maroteira CP267
Aldeia da Serra d’Ossa
7170-120 Redondo
Portugal

We did a Jeep safari through the cork forest, including lunch afterward in Redondo, and had a wonderful experience. There are several different tours offered through corktrekking.com. I'm sure they are all wonderful. Charming people and good value for the money!

For me, a cork farm is just a bunch of oak trees. Harvesting has to be later in summer when it's hot. I went to the Corticarte Em Arte cork factory a few kms outside Evora for a tour. You can book on Facebook, but since I'm anti-FB, I phoned. The "tour" is in one of their warehouses and was very interesting. The guide, son of the owners, was really good and explained with some demonstrations the entire process from acorn to finished products. They have a shop full of everything cork, good quality and good prices. The tour is free.

We also visited Corticarte em Arte. We were driving through the Alentejo and saw numerous groves. David at the factory was very informative and explained the harvest to our satisfaction as well as the processing etc. The factory prices were the best we saw anywhere on our 3 week trip.
We had considered visiting the farm you mentioned but as we were not there at harvest time chose the factory tour. Easy to arrange via Facebook and David was very responsive.

Hey, Carolyn!! It was thanks to your trip report that I went to the cork factory - and a lot of other places too. Thank you so much for writing it.

Guess I really should finish that trip report since I only covered the first of three weeks. I loved Portugal!

Carolyn - since I'm already back from my trip, you don't have to LOL. I loved Casa da Cisterna and especially the night tour of the rock art and Quinta de Marrocos, including the wine tour. I spent 2 nights at each and dinners and wines were terrific. Thank you so much for your report.