Ultra elegant. Apparently fragile, white and wide, yet flexible and resistant, Caper Flowers emerge proudly from the stone walls and in the fields of Salina island. Their scent is delicate. The long purple stamens, almost a crown, create an extraordinary chromatic contrast with the small, fleshy and very green leaves of the hanging or prostrate bushes. The caper seeds, reluctant to submit to the farmers’ hands, are disseminated by insects and birds in the most unthinkable corners. In the small and complex Aeolian world, this Mediterranean essence found its paradise, often nestled near the Malvasia vines. Salina boasts three varieties of capers: one can also wait for their fruits, the so-called ‘cucunci’, but the most commonly eaten are the caper buds. They are wisely processed and debittered under sea salt, caressed and constantly stirred by the hands of those who know how to recognize the right consistency and aromas. Chefs prefer the small caliber of the most decorative capers, the Aeolians the intense and delicate taste of the bigger and ripen buds. That is to say the ones which give off balsamic perfume and that famous firm and meaty sapidity which guarantees Proustian emotions even far away from the volcanic archipelago. What is certain is that you must travel in person in the caper’s terroir to taste a real Aeolian salad -of which capers are the princes- and to walk among the caper fields, surrounded by landscapes where the islands of the archipelago inexorably mark the horizon. Salina and Taste Scenario await for you. You will learn to love deep sceneries and the refined simplicity of ancient tastes.
