6. Capers: Tiny Flower Buds That Never Got to Open
The little green bits scattered over fish, stirred into sauces, or served with smoked salmon can look like miniature peas. Capers are actually unopened flower buds. They are picked from a caper plant and preserved in salt or brine before reaching your kitchen.
Let a bud stay on the plant and it can open into a showy flower with pale petals and a spray of long stamens. It is a dramatic change for something you might otherwise scoop from a jar without a second glance. The photograph shows that flowering stage, after the point when a bud would be harvested as a caper.
There is another easy mix-up at the deli counter: caper berries. Those larger, often stemmed items are the plant’s fruits, not oversized versions of the same bud. Both can be preserved and eaten, but they represent different stages of the plant’s life.
