Capers

Capers are the buds of the flower of the caper plant. They tend to grow on old walls. We have a friend that has some of the biggest and oldest walls around here and got his permission to go caper picking. A friend of mine from Sicily told me how they blow the seeds into the cracks of the walls and put a little dirt on top, to make sure they have plenty of capers. We went about 6 weeks ago and picked 4 plus jars of beautiful big lightly scented capers and cured them in salt. One of the north african workers at the farm was curious about what we were doing. He didn't seem to know what the plants were that we were so eagerly deflowering or actually de-preflowering. An interesting cultural moment with me and the north african speaking in Italian about capers. My Italian is not very good, but I knew that he understood what I was talking about because he made reference to putting capers on pizza. By salt curing these you maintain the aroma and taste of the flower which would be overwhelmed by a vinegar treatment. Now, salt cured and delicious. A first for this year we also took the caper fruit and pickled them. OUTSTANDING! for hors d'oeuvres or on salad.