In the town of Goochland, VA, Robert Staples and Verde Shaffer own and operate a 23-acre pork farm called Hog Haven. Ten years ago, the husband and wife team were moving from North Carolina back to Virginia, looking for a place to call home. They came across this farmland, which was previously an old tobacco farm from the 1920s, took advantage of the offer and have been there ever since.
Neither Staples nor Shaffer came from a farming background. In fact, they both had careers in sales. But Staples said, “We found ourselves living [at the farm]. And it was originally my wife’s idea to do a little bit of homesteading.”
What started as just a hobby with a few pigs turned into a full-time job with 100 pigs today.
Although the couple didn’t come from a farming background, they “had a little bit of connection to the sales side of what you do with a farm,” explained Staples. They were able to make connections with neighboring farmers markets to sell their goods. Originally, Shaffer wanted to try to sell some of their meat in farmers markets as a side business, with previous connections with Charlottesville Farmers Market.
Although they were new to the industry, Staples thinks they learned a bit on the fly but also took the time to learn by doing some research. When it came to selling their pork at the market, Staples’s sales experience proved to come in handy. “I was pretty good at connecting with people walking around,” he said, and successfully sold a whole cooler of meat.
The following year, Staples and Shaffer had the idea to cook the pork and serve it hot to customers. They sourced local bread, made their own breakfast sandwiches “and right off the bat, at the beginning of the second season at Charlottesville, people just started lining up.”
Staples was surprised to see that not many farmers were serving their own hot food at the time, but he also learned it’s a lot of work to pull off. It’s been a very successful part of their business that they’ve been more than happy to keep up with.
Currently, Hog Haven is involved in 30 markets a week, with over 40 staff members total, most part-time. One of their original markets they joined is the Alexandria Market, the oldest one in the country – where George Washington sold his produce back in the day.
Owner Verde Shaffer with some of the farm’s hogs – most of which are half Berkshire. Photo courtesy of Hog Haven
Staples said the farm gets four times as much business at the Alexandria Market than any others. The Alexandria Market turned into their best market.
Over the past 10 years, Staples and Shaffer have not expanded the acreage of their land but have continuously worked on finding the perfect breed of pig for their production (and incorporating more farmers markets). Out of the 23 acres, 16 to 17 are used as fixed pasture. Staples has two corners of pasture that he rotates between, giving the areas breaks as needed for them to regrow.
Hog Haven has always been passionate about heritage breeds. Staples realized that not a lot of breeds thrive in large-scale settings. This was one thing he thought made small farms special. “You can do heritage breeds,” he said. “You’re preserving these heritage breeds that otherwise … wouldn’t necessarily be around.”
They originally started working with Gloucestershire Old Spots (GOS), but quickly realized they take longer to grow to market weight. Then they learned more about hybrid vigor, “so we started playing around with some of the other heritage breeds, particularly Tamworths, for a while,” Staples said.
Although they have multiple breeds on the farm, including GOS, Tamworth, Duroc and Large Black, “every pig on the farm now is at least half Berkshire” due to the Berkshire boar they use for natural breeding. Staples is confident that his hogs produce high quality meat, and that “Berkshire meat quality is the best out of all the breeds we tried.”
Hog Haven focuses on keeping everything as natural as possible. They don’t use chemicals or antibiotics, GMO inputs, pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers on the property. Staples doesn’t see any advantage in giving the hogs antibiotics, as they’ve “never had any problems with them getting sick” besides the occasional pig. This is another thing that sets their farm apart from the grocery store and creates a better product and happier and healthier animals.
Staples mentioned a disadvantage of buying from big commercial farmers. “They’ve lost the connection that these are animals and not a commodity,” he said. “If you treat them too much like a commodity then it [can make] a negative impact on the quality of the product.”
When Staples thought about the last decade on the farm, he’s proud to have realized the operation has grown and they’ve been “growing the business every year for the past five years, pretty significantly.”
They recently acquired their own kitchen – they were renting one before – where they can prep and make their sandwiches, and potentially use it as a retail store front.
For more information visit hoghavenfarm.com.
by Kelsi Devolve
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