Dirigo Farms Catering Co. was established in 2021 by husband and wife team Autumn and Daniel Daidone to bring fresh, delicious food to Central Maine. Being farmsteaders themselves, the Daidones greatly appreciate the value of sourcing ingredients locally and supporting local agriculture. What can be better than fresh, local fare?! The food prepared by Dirigo Farms Catering Co. is proudly made from scratch utilizing quality ingredients for an end result that tantalizes the taste buds. Offering custom catering services, Dirigo Farms Catering Co. appreciates many genres of food found around the world from elevated comfort foods, to traditional Italian menus, farm-to-table dinners, seafood feasts and more. No two menus are exactly the same, which keeps things exciting and engaging for the cooks! The team at Dirigo Farms Catering Co. is always ready to roll up their sleeves and try something new if you have a special food request. Despite the wide variety of food Dirigo Farms Catering Co. has to offer, one thing remains the same regardless of what is on the menu- the food will be homemade from scratch with love.
Meet the Cooks
Autumn and Daniel met over food- it was good cooking that brought the two together. Tasty food cooked from the heart- and sharing that food with the ones they love- has always been a focal point of their relationship. The two have also always enjoyed working together, and their skill sets complement one another. They first began working together as they built their farmstead in Ripley, Maine over the course of several years. Blood, sweat, tears, and a whole lot of elbow grease turned what once was a cabin in the woods into a farm with gardens, pastures, a greenhouse, and more. On the farmstead, Autumn and Dan grow storage vegetables to be used for their catering, with garlic being their favorite and most abundant crop. In the greenhouse, Autumn enjoys growing hot peppers to be used in making hot sauces and dried ristras. Both have been blessed with a green thumb, and love to garden. In addition to growing storage veggies, herbs, and edible floral garnishes, they also raise goats for meat production and compost-making, pastured pigs, and a small laying flock.
Dan comes from a long background of cooking. Growing up in Long Island, Dan worked at a number of Italian restaurants from a young age. He continued cooking into adulthood, and worked in a number of local restaurants in central Maine before opening up his own restaurant Pastimes Pub in Dover-Foxcroft. After getting out of restaurant ownership, Dan found he could not stay far away from the kitchen life. Leaning into his carpentry skills, he and Autumn began refurbishing a former restaurant in Harmony to convert into a catering kitchen. Several years later, the former breakfast restaurant has been turned into a functional catering kitchen capable of producing food to feed hundreds of people at a time. When Dan isn't cooking, he enjoys gardening, playing guitar, dreaming big, and spending time with his family.
Autumn grew up in central Maine, spending much of her childhood and younger years enjoying the outdoors. Prior to starting Dirigo Farms Catering Co., Autumn worked for a decade as an Emergency Room nurse. There are many parallels between emergency medicine and catering, to include the fast-paced work environment, long work days, heavy lifting, providing customer-centered service, thinking on your feet, and maintaining a sense of calm in a stressful environment. These nursing-learned skills in addition to her love for cooking have translated well to catering, as Autumn takes the lead on event coordinating as well as helping in the kitchen cooking. Outside of cooking, Autumn loves nothing more than being a mother, spending time in nature backpacking, hiking, running, and adventuring, reading, and spending time on the farmstead with her family.