When you think of farm-to-table options in South Jersey, caviar might not be the first thing that comes to mind. But a Gloucester County dentist and his 30,000 sturgeon are working hard to change that.
The operation is King Caviar Farms in Swedesboro. It’s the passion project of Septimiu Pastiu, and the business has opened just in time to add a touch of local decadence to your holiday menu this year.
Pastiu, originally from Romania, said he was dissatisfied with the caviar he was finding here in America, even at specialty stores in Philadelphia. He found the product to be inconsistent, and never as good or as fresh as what he had in Europe.
Pastiu said he thought he’d try his hand at raising his own sturgeon for caviar, and he started in 2017 just for fun, raising the fish in his backyard “Little by little, as a hobby, I bought some sturgeon from a farm in Florida,” Pastiu said.
But by 2019, the success he found as a hobbyist led him to start what would become his commercial operation.
He said he hired consultants and flew in specialists from Europe to plan and construct his aquaculture operation in Swedesboro.
Sturgeon, Pastiu said, take a long time to grow to the point where they can produce eggs for caviar, but they can only be shipped when small. So after building out their facility, they had 2,000 1-year-old sturgeon shipped in from Germany, and now, six years later, the first tins of caviar are ready for sale.
“This year was the first year we were able to harvest,” he said.
The farm has seven indoor pools and one large outdoor pond measuring roughly 40 feet by 60 feet, and 11 feet deep.
Through the purchase of additional fertilized eggs, also imported from Germany, Pastiu’s operation now tends to 30,000 fish.
That sounds like a lot of sturgeon, and to be sure it is, but the numbers are necessary considering that only about two percent of the females will be at a point where they can produce caviar at any given time.
He said the fish produce caviar throughout the year but this is the most productive season, as they tend to be more fruitful as the air and water gets colder.
King Caviar raises multiple species of sturgeon on the farm including Russian sturgeon, which produces the popular osetra caviar.
“Osetra caviar is the most popular caviar in the world,” Pastiu said. “It’s very buttery, it’s very soft tasting, very delicate tasting, but the eggs are firm. So the eggs are very individualized. It looks good and it tastes very good.”
Leaning into the concept of farm-to-table for his caviar, Pastiu said he is harvesting and packaging his product on demand.
“We’re gonna keep it as a small farm, local – no intention of really expanding,” he said.
“We’re keeping it small, handcrafted, fresh, highest quality possible. I can pretty much have it on the table the same day. I can harvest in the morning, salt it and take it to a table, if needed.”
While the concept of a fish farm producing caviar in South Jersey may be a new concept, caviar production in general is not as foreign to the region as it may seem.
Pastiu points out that South Jersey was once a leading producer of caviar, with production coming from the harvesting of the native Atlantic Sturgeon in the waters of the nearby Delaware River, which peaked in the late 1800s and led to the near extinction of the species.
That history of overfishing also lends special attention to King Caviar, as Pastiu is particularly proud of the sustainability of his operation.
Pastiu said he’s uncertain if he wants to grow the business any larger than it is now in the future, or if even would be able to.
“This is where we are now in a dilemma,” Pastiu said.
He said the industry is such a small niche, with no training programs or pipeline of knowledgeable staff. He said as far as he knows, his is the only caviar farm in New Jersey and one of only a handful on the whole east coast. The next closest farms, he said, are in North Carolina and Florida.
Right now, Pastiu said, they are pretty much running the operation solely as a family, with himself alongside his wife Kathy and daughter Anamaria, who has expressed interest in following in her father’s footsteps someday.
“I’m waiting for my daughter,” he said. “She wants to go to business school and to take over, but it’s going to be a couple of years.”
Currently, King Caviar’s products can be found in a small pop-up shop consisting of a fridge packed with caviar inside Pastiu’s dental practice, Sewell Dental Arts, at 400 Ganttown Rd. in Sewell, as well as at the Cape May Winery and on the menu of high end restaurants like Peter Shields Inn, Washington Inn and Port Marina, all in Cape May, as well as Rittenhouse Grill in Philadelphia.
You can also learn more about King Caviar Farms and how to purchase their products by following them on Facebook, emailing them at [email protected], or texting them at (856) 340-9728.