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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Weekly Caper Update


The capers on the left were picked this morning. In the center row are the capers I picked a week ago. Those have been sitting in a brine solution in the refrigerator. The capers on the right are the ones picked two weeks ago. Those were dried in their brine solution, which took a day and a half (one day was foggy half the time) and then a day sitting on the kitchen counter. The first batch are stored in the salt from the brine solution that crystalized during the drying process. I may store the next batch in fresh coarse sea salt.

The Tuscan plants tend to have a reddish color to their leaves and buds which you can see in the fresh and brined capers in the second row back.

The pickling process, I think it is actually a kind of fermentation, is slower at cold temperatures. The first batch developed more rutin crystals in a week of brining which is probably because it had a day at room temperature. I'm going to keep batch #2 in the refrigerator another week. Batch #3 is going to sit in a brine solution at 55F for it's first week.

The dried buds were a bit sharp tasting immediately after drying, but seem to have mellowed a bit after sitting in a sealed jar at room temperature for a week.

So far it has taken three weeks to pick about 3 1/2 ounces of fresh capers.

9 comments:

  1. Cool! I have never known anyone to grow and pickle their own capers before. Very interesting!

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  2. Fantastic! I've tried to pickle just about any veggie I could get my hands on, from prickly pear, to grape leaves, but never capers! Love your blog BTW.

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  3. Amazing, I want to have a go with capers too!

    Tyra

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  4. Yum! I love capers! I'm in Zone 7-8, but I am sure I still cannot plant them here!

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  5. islandgardener, I've not seen any information about what specific zones capers will grow in. They will take lows down to 18F and tolerate a lot of heat (over 100F). I'm not sure that they tolerate a humid climate tho.

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  6. Am enjoying the Saga of the Capers. Can't wait for the next installment!

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  7. wow! I would just love to grow capers! where do you get the seed from?

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  8. Matron, a google search turned up a few sources for caper seeds - a couple of them are on my sidebar of favorite seed sources. I've had good experiences buying from Seeds From Italy and Gourmet Seed International. Or if you would like some seeds that I saved from my plants last fall send me an email (on my profile page) and we can arrange to get some to you.

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  9. Never thought of growing capers and I think I would have paid attention if I saw that option in a seed catalog. So thanks for the sources, Michelle. These look beautiful.

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