My nasturtiums are seeding already. Not all of them – the ones in full sun flower most profusely and set seed first. But there’s enough seed in the one little patch in the front in full sun for the first jar of nasturtium seed capers for the season. They hide quite well so you may not realise how many you have. Nasturtium capers work really well with fish or eggs or with anything with mayonnaise or cream cheese in it, adding a little tart salty spicy pop. They’re a different flavour to olives, but you can also use them in pretty well any place you’d use olives – a pasta sauce, a salad, a platter with cheese and crackers. Or just have them in the fridge for any recipe that calls for capers.
If you only have a small amount, and you are going to use them soon, you can make nasturtium seed pod capers as a simple vinegar pickle, same method as fridge pickles. Fast and easy. Add some dill seeds if you like, or a bit of thyme. They are best left to pickle for a week or two, and will last like that in the fridge for months. And fridge pickled nasturtium seeds are quite fine.
But to make gourmet nasturtium capers, that will last indefinitely and are so good you tie a pretty bow around the jar and make gifts of them, a better method is to lacto ferment them. Fridge pickled nasturtium pods are soft, like capers. Lacto-fermented ones have a little bit of crispness, like sauerkraut or kimchi. It’s the same basic technique as making sauerkraut or kim chi, and you end up with a lightly tart, mildly spicy caper substitute that will last forever in the fridge and a long time out of it.
The method is really simple and only a tiny bit slower than fridge pickling. You want green nasturtium seeds that are mature but haven’t started to dry and harden. Often they are in clumps of three, pale green or with a reddish tinge, easy to detach. Wash them then pack them loosely into a clean jar. Make a brine that is one cup of water (unchlorinated if possible – we are trying to grow ferments, not stop it) to two big teaspoons of salt (about 12 – 15 grams). Pour it in to fill the jar and cover the nasturtium seeds, and weigh them down so they don’t float. (I just used a lid that fits inside the jar upside down, with a rock in it.) The ferment needs to breathe so put the lid on the jar loosely, or cover with some cheesecloth and a rubber band.
Wait three or four days, less if the weather is hot, more if it’s cold then put your jar in the fridge. You can put the lid on but try to remember to loosen it every couple of days to let out the carbon dioxide that the fermentation bugs produce. After about a fortnight your capers should be ready to start using, and they will get better with time.
I have used nasturtiums for years as ground cover (along with self sowing parsley) in my little front yard orchard to protect the soil from drying out during the years of drought (plus the bees love them & they look pretty too in their multitude of colour). They have always struggled, until recently when the plentiful rains came often the last 2 years. Now the nasturtiums have their leaves & flowers plucked regularly as salad leaves & sandwich fillers. They are pulled back from growing up the plums, apples, nectarine, peach & apricot dwarf trees, & added to the compost bin.
I have heard the seeds make great caper substitute and now I have a recipe & simple clear instructions thanks to you, I will give it a go to make my own nasturtium seed capers! Thankyou!
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