Fueled by breakfast sandwiches, Goochland’s Hog Haven Farm puts down roots in Oregon Hill

The former pizzeria building is behind the Mocha Market corner store on Idlewood Avenue. (Mike Platania photo)

A former Oregon Hill pizza place is set to become a pig pen of sorts. 

Goochland’s Hog Haven Farm is moving into the former Peddler on Pine Street space at 238 S. Pine St., with plans to use the building as a prep kitchen for its growing business that’s fueled by its popular breakfast sandwiches. 

Earlier this month, Hog Haven owners Rob Staples and Verde Shaffer bought the Pine Street building for $475,000. 

Tucked away and located behind the Mocha Market on Idlewood Avenue, the 3,300-square-foot space had been the prep kitchen for local food cart operator Mike Powers’ business until he retired last year. He’d previously operated the pick-up focused Peddler pizzeria at 238 S. Pine St. but closed it closed in 2019 after roughly a year in business. 

As a husband-and-wife duo, Staples and Shaffer have owned and operated Hog Haven since 2015, but the business’s roots were laid a couple years prior in 2013 when they bought about 23 acres on a former tobacco farm in Goochland. 

Staples’ professional background was in sales and customer service, and Shaffer worked mostly in the front-of-house of restaurants. After moving to Goochland, Staples said Verde suggested they take advantage of their pastoral home. 

“My wife had a notion that, ‘If we live (on the farm), wouldn’t it be nice to do a little homesteading?’” Staples said. “Neither of us grew up farming. We got a couple pigs, and one thing led to another.”

In 2013 they opted to pursue Hog Haven full-time, selling cuts of meat like pork belly, bacon and sausage primarily at farmers’ markets.

Staples said they go to markets from Charlottesville to the D.C.-Maryland-Northern Virginia region, along with the local GrowRVA markets in Bryan Park and Forest Hill Park. 

Hog Haven’s breakfast sandwich has fueled much of the business’ growth in recent years. (Courtesy Hog Haven Farm)

But what really vaulted the business was the introduction of a breakfast sandwich in 2016. Made with Hog Haven sausage on an English muffin from a Charlottesville bakery, Staples said the sandwich has fueled much of their recent growth. The business now has 40 employees. 

“People loved it right off the bat,” he said. “At this point we’re really a hot food vendor, and the meat is kind of a secondary product. We get an order of magnitude more revenue from hot food, and specifically the breakfast sandwich.”

With the emergence of the sandwich came more prep work, especially now that Staples said they’re at about 28 farmers’ markets each week. He said they’ve been running out of space at a rented commercial kitchen in Goochland, which led them to Oregon Hill.

They purchased the building on April 8, and plan to open at some point this year, depending on how busy they get during peak farmers’ market season. 

In addition to being a prep kitchen, Staples said they hope to eventually sell the breakfast sandwiches to-go out of the Oregon Hill space. 

“People are always asking us, ‘Don’t you have a brick and mortar? Aren’t you going to get a brick and mortar?’” Staples said. 

“Well, I think (the Pine Street spot) is a good idea because it will serve as the prep kitchen, and if that’s the only thing it does, it’ll be fine. But it has that set up where we could maybe do carry-out. So we hope to try that, if we can get organized to do it.”

Staples said they’re also planning to have a retail area where they’ll sell Hog Haven’s meats and other goods like its pimento cheese, lemonades and sauces.