MORE THAN A FISH STORY

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 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.

pandemic), we’re always hoping that people will be interested in getting into aquaculture because the more that people see it the better it is for all of us,” said Davis.

They also offer an internship program. “Because we’re so diversified, especially in aquaculture, the students can do three different species on this farm and get involved in some studies. We spawn our fish here on the farm, also and it’s a big opportunity for them,” said Evans.

When the fish are ready to spawn, typically in July, the entire Evans family gets involved.

“We use the standard protocol for spawning which is what we call strip spawning, where we take the eggs and the milk from the male and we actually hand mix it. It’s an all night family affair. We usually have to call in everybody and we’ll have 20 people here doing the spawning because you have to hand everybody eggs and sperm and they have to stir the eggs for at least 30 minutes or so and then they’ll go into hatching jars,” said Davis.

“Depending on which species, they’ll hatch within a few weeks. They’ll go into these little troughs where we’ll feed them some fry food. As they grow, they’ll go into different sized tanks. Once they are about four months to six months old then they’ll be ready to go outside in the sunlight.

“This is the first time they go in the sun and we’ll put them in tenfoot tanks first so we can still see them. Once they are two-feet long they go into the 30-foot tanks. From there we feed them every day for the next five years. We’ll be

grading them and checking them during those five years, but we try to not handle them too much. Let them grow and eat,” said Davis.

The caviar taste differs between the species. Davis says Ossetra produces eggs with gold-colored fat and a buttery flavor. Siberian is plainer and Sevruga has a stronger taste. It can be eaten the traditional way on blini, a Russian pancake or crepe made from wheat or buckwheat flour, or Davis’ favorite way on scrambled eggs.

The Evans family farm is looking at a bright future with their cows and aquaculture

Geno Evans, Jane Evans Davis, and their mother, Marilyn Evans, check out the farm’s signature sign.

The aquaculture business adds commodities to the family’s beef cattle operation.

ventures, and new plans to add red snapper and arapaima. But emerging consumer awareness of where food comes from is another factor.

“It’s important, especially during this pandemic,” said Evans. “It makes us well-aware that we need to be more localized or regionalized with our food. I think everybody’s going to learn that across the nation.

“Instead of having one big producer or one big processor feeding a whole area. We’re going to learn a lot from this pandemic, I think, in agriculture.”