Here at Girls Guide to the Galaxy, we stand by the idea that we’re not Oprah or Martha. However, sometimes – especially in the food realm – it’s wise to look to our elders. The July issue of Martha Stewart Living, available to the public sometime in the next week with its so-tastefuly red-white-and-blue sorbet sundaes with cookie spoons, contains one of the best articles I’ve ever read that explains the difference between conventional, natural, and organic meat. If you want a quick way to find out the pros and cons to the meat you’re eating, read it. I’ll share a link if the article appears on Martha’s behemouth website. I always feel like I’m trapped in a Victorian labrynth when I go to that site.

When I buy meat, I try to stick to local, small farms run by people who don’t mind if I pay them a visit to make sure the critters aren’t wallowing in their own feces. I want my meat to come from animals that lived comfortable, healthy lives that are as close to what nature intended as possible. Nevermind what label’s slapped on the finished product.

I’m a big fan of Hinkebein Hills Farm in Cape Girardeau. They’re regulars on the St. Louis farmer’s market circuit, and lots of excellent local restaurants features their products. I love that the Hinkebein family welcomes visitors to their farm, and that they do all of their own processing. The animals aren’t carted all over creation in atmosphere-wrecking trucks. They’re providing jobs for the local economy.

But really, it’s all about the sausage.

Hinkebein custom-makes umpteen varieties of sausage, all of them so tasty that I once gave a friend a cooler filled with them for her birthday. You know it’s good if it’s gift-worthy. Their onion pork sausage patties are my favorite, and we eat a lot of them in a variety of ways at my house. At $4/pound it’s hard to find yucky commercially-made sausage that’s such a bargin. With the onions included, they’re ready-made for patty melts. Don’t want to heat your kitchen? You can make these on the grill.

Porky Patty Melts

1 package Henkebein Hills Farm onion pork sausage patties (4 patties)

8 slices Companion rye batard bread

4 slices Ropp Jersey baby Swiss cheese

coarse-grained mustard

olive oil

1. Fire up your grill and cook the onion pork sausage patties until cooked through.
2. Assemble sandwiches with patties, cheese, and mustard on rye. Lightly brush outside of bread with olive oil. Place on the grill, flipping after the bottoms are toasty.

If you don’t like to play with fire, of course you can do this on the stove. But what fun is that? There’s nothing more natural than cooking with fire!