As anyone who tries to eat locally soon finds out, condiments can be a sticking point. Finding locally-made salt is all-but-impossible in most areas, and good luck finding local black pepper or cardamom.
Capers are also nigh-on impossible to source locally. Made from the unripened flower buds of a plant that grows wild all over the Mediterranean, they travel a long way to get to your plate. But, unlike salt, there’s a great substitute that can flourish almost anywhere in North America: pickled nasturtium buds. I had a chance to taste some recently. Pickled in salty brine, they taste almost exactly like capers, but better: piquant, peppery, juicy. And they’re huge, about the size of a malted milk ball instead of a pea.
Summer is the perfect time to pick the buds, according to Sandor Ellix Katz, author of the book Wild Fermentation. Look for a crinkled, brain-like nodule at the base of bloomed-out nasturtium flowers. Pick them, soak them for about a week in a solution of 3/4 tablespoon of table salt for each cup of water, and use them in sandwiches, salads, pastas, and whatever else you’d use capers in.
oh I like this idea…
better than capers? SIGN ME UP!
questions:
how long do they store after the week of brining?
will they freeze? so we can enjoy the harvest all year?
Is it possible to grow the real thing? Any idea what the genus species name is? For starters.
Park Seed Company sells caper bush seeds
They’re not buds. The buds are triangular, with little spurs. As you wrote yourself, they’re from the bloomed out plant. In other words, they’re immature seeds. I tried brining them once and ended up tossing the whole batch. Bleh. But maybe I didn’t do it correctly.
I think growing a caper bush from seed would take a long time. The plants are hard to find, but are attractive and hardy to about 10 degrees F. If you don’t pick all the buds, the flowers are lovely.
good tips, i will make it……..
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