Memorial Day is Almost Here – Verde Farms

This post is a paid partnership with Verde Farms. As always, all opinions are our own.

The unofficial start of summer is just a week away! We’ve been spending a lot of time on our patio lately. So far (and I know I’m jinxing us all by typing this), it’s been a mild start to patio season. The humidity isn’t too bad yet, mosquitos are minimal, and our grill has been hard at work.

I love nights on our patio. The wicker. The twinkle lights. The laughter from kids playing hide and seek in the neighborhood. It’s time to gather outside and catch up with friends. And BOY do we have A LOT to catch up on these days.

Burgers are a must for many on Memorial Day. I think it’s perhaps the day (along with the Fourth of July) our grills get to flex their muscles the most. If you’re not a cold weather pit master, Memorial Day might also signal the inaugural first grill of the season. This holiday weekend, when you’re shopping for high quality burger meat, we recommend none other than our new friends, Verde Farms.

Their ground beef has no antibiotics or added hormones, and is 100% grass-fed, 100% grass-finished, 100% organic, 100% free-range, and 100% delicious. Here in St. Louis, you can find Verde Farms products at Schnucks. In regard to ground beef, they offer 93% lean, 85% lean, 80% lean, and if you’d rather buy your burgers in preformed patties, they sell those too! For our Memorial Day burgers, we’re going with the 85% lean.

We use our Verde Farmes ground beef to make our favorite smash burger recipe. The recipe we use again and again is from Chef Brian Lagerstrom at Weeds & Sardines. We were thinking of creating a burger recipe of our own, but you know what? Why reinvent the wheel? We know perfection when we taste it. As Brian recommends, we like using a brioche bun for our burgers. We like the sweetness of the dough, the buoyancy of the bread, and gee, isn’t that shiny top just pretty? Neil looks like he has the Hand of God smashing this one. (Cue angelic chorus: Ahhh!)

Two notes about his recipe: 1. Yes, you must use Kraft singles (or “singies” as Brian says in his video recipe). As he mentions, when the cheese melts it really becomes more of a sauce, and it brings the whole burger together. The burger sauce is made from ingredients you probably already have in your fridge, and it elevates the flavors to the next level. If you have extra sauce leftover, try it on your eggs the next morning. Check out his YouTube video for the full smash burger recipe.

No matter what recipe you use, before firing up the grill this Memorial Day, be sure to check out the ground beef from Verde Farms at Schnucks. You can be assured that you’re buying high quality beef, from a company who respects the animals, the earth, and the farmers. We hope you have a fun and safe holiday weekend as we gather to honor those who served our country.