Uncork Potential Possibilities

By Jim Sollecito

There comes a time we stop being the picture and become the frame.

Understanding our place in the natural order as we transition from the frantic center of attention to a more nurturing surround.

We know more because we have made many mistakes getting here. Hopefully, we’ve learned something along the way.

In my own journey, I finally found my rhythm when I realized that backward steps and even stillness are part of the dance. I want to continue doing things I enjoy because I want to know what it is like to do these things as I evolve.

Decades ago, on my way to North Africa, I side-tripped to Portugal just to see the orange clay tile roofs and cork oak forests. “Renewable resources” was not a common phrase at the time. But I knew the bark of these trees was peeled every nine or more years and made into stoppers for the world’s wines. Why nine? Because if they harvested sooner, the trees would die. It may seem like standing still, but it is growth.

And unlike other forms of forestry harvesting, the production of cork does not involve the death of a tree. Instead, trees 25 years and older are gently stripped by skilled cork peelers called “descorticadores,” leaving a strange but fascinating landscape of denuded trunks extending into the leafy crowns. Cork production has become an inter-generational industry with farmers still producing a crop from trees planted by their great-great grandfathers.

How did they track the harvest schedule before computers? Well, they followed that familiar method we all use… writing. By painting a big number on each trunk after it was peeled, the farmers knew how long to wait until it was time to re-peel that tree. Very sustainable.

This particular tree may be approaching 150 years in age, but it is still productive because of meticulous cultural care. In fact, the quality of the cork increases as the tree ages. But despite all that, eventually the tree’s useful output will cease.

We like to think of life as inexhaustible. Yet everything ages. And living things have a lifespan. I wonder if a tree feels its age. Where does time go? Well, it just keeps going.

I don’t want to be younger or hold onto who I was before. I want to age and celebrate aging with activities that strengthen my mind, body and spirit. Getting older is a blessing, not a curse. We are lucky to see things in Technicolor now.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

And like a fine wine, that is worth savoring.

Jim Sollecito is the first lifetime senior certified landscape professional in New York State. He operates Sollecito Landscaping Nursery in Syracuse. Contact him at 315-468-1142 or jim@sollecito.com.