The other day at work, I found in my mailbox a tri-fold pamphlet with a fat pig on it. The pig had a chef’s toque perched between his pointy ears, and he carried a plate of sausage, cheese, grapes, and wine above his left shoulder. Below his apron, with the phrase "My Wurst Is Best" emblazoned on its impeccably clean front, were words that got my heart racing: Old Fashioned Premium Quality Meat Products Made in Maine.

Closer inspection revealed that Maurice Bonneau’s Sausage Kitchen, already a Lisbon Falls institution gaining press for his cased-meat treats, was setting up shop in the Portland Public Market. One could easily break down the fantastic-sounding subtitle of his information pamphlet into four chapters, and for the purposes of this article, I will.

Old Fashioned. Maurice Bonneau has been in the meat industry here in Maine since he was hock-high to a sow. "As my mother always said," he likes to say, "I was skinning veal calves before I was 10 years old!" The son of French-Canadian immigrants in Lewiston, Maurice cut his teeth at, helped out in, became partners with, and eventually took over Bonneau’s Supermarket. And while the supermarket has long since been closed, these days Maurice is achieving a goal he had years ago: to make high-quality, healthy sausage with the same care his father and uncle used to put into all of their products. The pig that graces his pamphlet even harkens back to the old Bonneau’s logo, a cartoon steer ("Real cocky-like" he remembered to me, "very cute.") with the words "Never a Bum Steer" written beneath.

Premium Quality. All of Maurice Bonneau’s sausages are handmade in small batches and contain the freshest ingredients he can get his hands on. The pork shoulder, lamb, chuck, and turkey he uses are hormone-free and contain no by-products, and he’ll tell you all about it if you ask. Come to think of it, he’ll tell you about it even if you don’t ask, and it’s a wonderful education either way. He speaks deliberately and carefully, his sentences frequently beginning with "I have to be honest with you," or "Let’s face the facts," and more often than not punctuated mid-stream by a happy "Good morning!" to folks passing by. Young, old, down-and-out, discs in the ear, all types were stopping by the sausage cart to spear the samples with toothpicks and then dig through the cooler of pre-packaged sausages. And then buying three or four of them.

Meat Products. There’s a steady rotation of about 25 sausages that are produced in Maurice Bonneau’s Sausage Kitchen, as well as bologna, salami, pate, jerkey, and a Slim-Jimesque snack called Trail Sticks. The sausage varieties span the globe: English Bangers, Polish Kielbasa, German Bratwurst, Canadian Style Breakfast Sausage, Greek Loukaniko, Swedish Potato Sausage, Sicilian Wine and Cheese Sausage, and back again stateside for the spicy Cajun Andouille. On tap is a new creation for the Chinese New Year, sausage made with sweet plum wine and cherries.

Made in Maine. If you ask Maurice about his sausages, you’re going to get a thorough description. If you start asking about the specific ingredients, you’re going to get a lesson in meatpacking economics. That’s true with a lot of Maine business owners whose products are tied to the state’s farms, and this one’s no different. All of his beef comes from Caldwell Farms, and he tries to get as much pork from local farms as he can. The problem is, not enough farms can guarantee that what they’ll be selling him is antibiotic- and hormone-free, and so he has to purchase from Quebec. His view of the future of Maine’s meatpacking industry is twofold: First, we have to get more meat animals into the state to increase the availability; second, we need a centralized facility with the capacity to inspect and process the larger number of animals. Local demand goes up, farmers get paid, prices go down, and suddenly there’s more local meat available. Someday, at least.

A young mother with her toddler is orbiting the sausage stand as Maurice chats on about his favorite subject, quality ingredients. The little girl is being held up to look at the picture of the fat pig (my favorite, too), and the mother is going back and forth between the case and the vegetable stand across from Forbes Meat Co., right next door to the sausage stand. After a few minutes, mom decides on a package of links and brings them over to the register. Maurice starts talking to the little girl, named Zoe, immediately. "Well hello, dahlin! Aren’t you beautiful?"

Mom whispers in Zoe’s ear, "Can you say sausage? Saaauuusage?"

Maurice chimes back in. "Sausage! Do you speak French? Saucisson? Can you say Saucisson?"

I start to say the French version, mom’s still chanting the English, and pretty soon, we all sound like a chorus. Zoe starts to giggle, and why not? It’s sausage, and it’s music to all of our ears.

Andy King can be reached at dinnerwithandy@yahoo.com

Maurice Bonneau’s Sausage Kitchen is open at the Portland Public Market, at 25 Preble St., on Fridays and Saturdays only.