The mere mention of caviar conjures images of opulent dining in a European style. Yet our Great Lakes are one of the best sources of this famed delicacy.
Take the Hickey Brothers Fisheries of Baileys Harbor in Door County. Wisconsin’s only caviar producer, it has been processing and curing roe from Great Lakes whitefish, chubs and herring since Martin Hickey first emigrated from Norway in the 1880s.
Today, under the control of Jeff and Dennis Hickey (Martin’s grandsons), those ties to the homeland remain as strong as ever. Of the 10,000 to 20,000 pounds of caviar the Hickeys produce annually, an amazing 99 percent is exported to Scandinavia. The rest stays in Door County.
“I just got off the phone with [my contact in Sweden], and they want more caviar than we can produce,” says 67-year-old Dennis Hickey. “Caviar is not part of American culture. We may serve some to impress our neighbors, but we don’t really appreciate it.”
American gourmands have long disparaged anything but the exotic caviar found in the Black and Caspian seas. But the collapse of the Soviet Union led to a plundering of its sturgeon, and in 2005, when stocks were depleted by 90 percent, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service banned Caspian Sea and Black Sea imports. Russia’s best became an illicit indulgence, forcing chefs and connoisseurs to turn to domestic sources.
Unlike Russian fisheries, Great Lakes caviar is sustainable and closely regulated. “Fish stocks are in good shape,” says Dennis. “Ever since zebra mussels created higher water clarity, they don’t come into shallow water until the fall spawning. The fish are there, just in a different place.”
Slowly, American tastes are becoming more receptive to what Scandinavians have long relished. But whoever the customers are, Dennis loves to fish for them.
“Bad back and all, I’m still lifting nets because I enjoy it,” Dennis says. “People ask me, ‘When are you going to retire?’ Why would I ever want to?”
