December 12, 2014 — The Yadkin River is by no means a tributary of the Caspian Sea. About the only thing the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Black Sea have in common is the reference to color in their names. And yet, in Caldwell County, you’ll find the only farm on the continent that produces one of the world’s most expensive delicacies.
The farm is an anonymous compound of long red sheds nestled behind a cornfield on the outskirts of Lenoir just off Indian Grave Road. "This is the last place you’d expect to find a sturgeon farm right?" jokes Elisabeth Wall. And she's right. Yet this is a fish farm in the foothills of the Blue Ridge. The only one in North America that produces not fish roe but high quality real caviar. What makes this real? "If its not from sturgeon its not caviar," says Wall who runs marketing and sales for Atlantic Caviar and Sturgeon. The company was dreamed up by four friends back in 2000. "One of them was a cargo pilot. And he was flying in and out of Russia where he would refuel his jets and also himself on a little bit of caviar."
But, says Wall, he was more than just a consumer. He was also a realist and a conservationist who saw what over-fishing and the dramatic jump in caviar production after the fall of the Soviet Union would create. "He could see that pretty soon most of the fish were going to be endangered. And today all sturgeon are."
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