Americans find a growing taste for capers

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - At first glance, the flowering, vine-like plants don't seem to offer anything you'd want to eat.

But look at this, says Lou Pasquale, a Fresno, Calif., organic farmer. He points out vines studded with tight, green buds and fruits shaped like pointy olives. While much of the fruits are firm and green, one has ripened and cracked, revealing its seeds.

These are caper plants, and thanks to the University of California's local research, their buds (known as capers) and fruits (known as caper berries) are turning into one of the nation's newest specialty crops.

Many Americans only know capers as tiny green buds scattered on pasta, chicken piccata and other dishes.

Eight years ago, University of California small farm adviser Richard Molinar saw potential in these expensive condiments. A March 2000 announcement summed up his hopes: "... Molinar believes small-scale farmers in California could capitalize on growing interest in capers' gourmet taste and the purported healthfulness of Mediterranean cuisine, of which capers are a part."

He planted them at the University of California Kearney Agricultural Center in Parlier. Since then, the caper plants have thrived, just as Molinar predicted. As frost-resistant and drought-tolerant plants, "they should do great on the Valley floor, and they have," he says.

The research generates about a dozen calls from interested folks every year, he says. It also has encouraged some California farmers to grow them.

Pasquale has three caper plants on his farm, which specializes in specialty produce. During last week's field tours at UC Kearney, he described how to pickle caper buds and berries _ and listed the ways they're used in his native Italy.

"They'll put them on pizza, any fish dish. They put them on everything," he says. "I love them in a salad."

Capers' allure also prompted Peder and Gretchen Rude to start what may be the only larger-scale caper farm in North America.

During their honeymoon in France and Italy, "we fell in love with the food and culture of that area," Peder Rude says. "We wanted to re-create that lifestyle here in the United States."

Capers made a lot of sense to the couple. Imports of this specialty condiment are rising, according to U.S. Department of Commerce data. In 2007, $12.2 million worth of capers were imported into the United States, says Harold Kanarek, spokesman for the United States Department of Agriculture. That figure was $9.3 million in 2006 and $8.5 million in 2005.

Production is centered in Mediterranean countries such as Spain, Italy and Turkey.

"Obviously, it would be real great to tap into a market that's so untouched" in the United States, Peter Rude says.

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For the past three years, the Rudes have tended about half an acre of caper plants near Elizabeth Lake in Los Angeles County, Calif. They work with Molinar to study the best propagation methods; their goal is to expand the caper farm to four to six acres. Come September, the farm also will be certified organic, Peder Rude says, meaning it has been free of prohibited pesticides and other substances for at least three years.

So what's so special about the caper, anyway?

You won't find the answer in any part of the raw plant. The beautiful flowers are bitter, and their buds are more herbal and woody than anything else.

"They just taste blah, for lack of a better way of putting it," Peter Rude says.

But when packed with salt or pickled in brine or vinegar, capers are transformed into a prized condiment.

"Like anchovies and olives, capers are a processed product that, when used in cooking, contributes to a dish more depth of flavor than you would anticipate from any single ingredient," Georgeanne Brennan writes in "Olives, Anchovies, and Capers: The Secret Ingredients of the Mediterranean Table" (Chronicle Books, $19.95). "... their flavor, which has been described as similar to mustard, imbues the dishes with a somewhat exotic heat."

They are important in dishes such as pan bagnat (the famous tuna-and-salad sandwich of the French Riviera) and puttanesca sauce (the feisty sauce with olives, anchovies and capers from Naples, Italy), Brennan writes. She also mixes them with butter for a simple spread loaded with flavor.

In regions such as North Africa and the Middle East, cooks combine capers and preserved lemons. And across the Mediterranean, you'll find various combinations of capers and fish.

But for all of capers' charms, there are reasons why caper farming hasn't spread like wildfire in California.

First, the best-quality capers come from Capparis spinosa, a thorny variety of caper plant, Peder Rude says. To avoid injury but maintain quality, he's planted a spineless version of C. spinosa created by plant breeders.

Pasquale isn't so lucky. "I've got the thorny type and they do bite," he says. "When they hook, you come out of there bleeding."

No matter what variety farmers have, there's the labor-intensive task of harvesting capers. The delicate buds must be picked by hand. Since smaller buds are more prized, farmers must keep a close eye on their development.

"Smaller ones are considered more valuable because they are less mature and thus firmer," Brennan writes in "Olives, Anchovies, and Capers." "They are also harder to pick because capers grow very quickly, so a small, perfect bud overlooked for a day or two quickly becomes a larger size."

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Molinar saw this firsthand in 2003, when he tracked the yield of one of his plants. The plants really need "to be picked two times a week," he says. "We kept track of what was good and what was too big, and (picking) one day a week was not enough."

Plus, it's not a big crop. After five months, that plant yielded 4.7 pounds of capers.

Because of these factors, Molinar recommends capers for small farmers who use their families to harvest them.

"I'm not sure it's going to be profitable (otherwise)," he says.

As for the Rudes, they haven't yet started processing capers. It takes about four or five years for a plant to start producing enough buds and berries, Peder Rude says.

But he's convinced that Americans will find value in a domestic source of freshly processed capers. Compared to capers that have sat on the shelf for a while, "their flavor is clean and crisp and much more distinct," he says.

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© 2008, The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.).