FOOD FROM UNIQUE
Aquaculture By Kathleen Rasche, Correspondent
WHAT DO COWS AND FISH HAVE IN COMMON? The Evans family in Pierson has the answer. As diversity becomes standard practice for family-owned farms, Evans Fish Farm employs family members to work both the cattleend of their operation and the aquaculture venture they started more than 25 years ago. The farm is definitely unique. Their Anastasia Gold caviar business is the only aquaculture operation in the U.S. with three different species of sturgeon – Ossetra, Siberian and Sevruga – housed in 45 tanks. The farm also has six ponds filled with bass and tilapia. Their caviar production is not excessive and is sold mainly to a niche market of U.S. restaurants and chefs who enjoy the quality 10
FLORIDAGRICULTURE | JULY 2020
and like knowing its local origins. The sturgeon meat is sold frozen, mostly to Russian clientele here in Florida, the family says. The farm’s tilapia and bass are sold to local live-food markets in Orlando. Some is also sold frozen. Gene Evans, a self-made businessman who passed away in 2014, added the sturgeon to his family farm. It’s not a business many are eager to try, his family says. “Sturgeon is kind of a long-term investment. It takes anywhere from five to ten years before they become mature, before you can have caviar,” said Gene’s daughter, Jane Evans Davis. A caviar farm in Florida is definitely a curiosity. Evans Fish
Farm has garnered much media attention over the years. It was even featured on the Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. “We definitely didn’t start it for the publicity,” said Geno Evans, with a laugh. “We get a lot of different questions, especially about the sturgeon part of it. Dad did it more for the bettering of the fish, the species itself.” Part of their “bettering” program is helping other farmers start aquaculture operations of their own. The family is happy to share husbandry methods, water chemistry and health/disease management. “Dad always used to say we kind of have an open door policy and while we’re not open for tours for education (because of the
Geno Evans examines a sturgeon at the family farm.
