What is Fresh? At Primo, fresh is the vital relationship between the kitchen and the gardens that surround it.  It is the morning communication that occurs between the chef and the head grower, coordinating the perfect harvest to fit that nights menu, and the perfect menu to fit that days harvest.

 Primo serves for three seasons of the year, operating from spring through the New Year. The garden process begins when the beds are covered in snow. Chef Melissa Kelly and the head grower Emily Rawn sit down in February, establishing the garden plan for the upcoming season. Soon after, Emily sets to work in the two greenhouses on the property, one heated and the other not. In the unheated greenhouse, cold hardy crops are used in combination with floating row covers. It is a heady experience to enter the greenhouses in mid - winter. On a bright winter day temperatures inside can reach up to 70 degrees. It is wonderful to stand in the humid warmth surrounded by healthy, green plants and breathe in the pungent scent of earth when the Maine landscape is frozen outside. The greenhouses are actively employed throughout the late winter and into spring, when the out door gardens are prepared and planted. In the summer they are used for heat-loving crops such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.

One and a half of the four acres on the property make up the restaurant’s kitchen gardens. These gardens are oriented entirely toward the kitchen and are fine-tuned to the chef’s needs. Farming practices at Primo make use of a variety of growing methods including organic, biodynamic and biological – nutritional agriculture. Home made compost, cover cropping, soil amendments and foliar feeding schedules all contribute to the restaurant’s goal of improving soil fertility in order to grow nutrient rich, full flavored crops that are more resistant to disease and insect pressure.

The main production gardens are up the hill behind the restaurant. These impressive beds are diverse, specially cultivated to support the inexhaustible creative spirit that makes Primo famous. More than thirty types of heirloom tomatoes are grown in the main gardens, along with an exciting variety of vegetables and fruits: purple cauliflower, fava beans, cardoons, celeriac, white alpine strawberries, and squash blossoms are just a few. Root crops, such as carrots, turnips, and beets, are replanted in these beds throughout the seasons, offering a continuous supply of tender, baby roots at peak quality. Lettuces and salad greens are also planted in the main gardens this way, with plant varieties changing seasonally, encouraging the seasonal diversity that keeps the chef and cooks inspired. 

The gardens immediately surrounding the restaurant are host to edible flowers, herbs, and additional varieties of vegetables and fruits. These beds are designed to be as functional as they are beautiful - a place where the Primo cooks can slip out of the kitchen to cut the herbs or garnish that they need. Teas and tisanes are created out of a special tea section of these gardens. Raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, and husk cherries are carefully selected from them to grace desserts.

All of the Primo gardens provide for the restaurant in other ways, too. Beautiful old apple trees can be found throughout the property. In the fall, the apples they drop are carted to a local press, where they are made into cider. Unique seasonal decorations in the restaurant - bundled corn stalks, decorative pots of rye grass, and distinctive tree branches all come from the property itself, as do the dizzying array of cut flowers that they compliment.

 The true stars of the Primo garden, however, are not plants at all: they’re the pigs!  Each year, the restaurant raises Tamworth pigs, a heritage breed from England.  Tamworth pigs are a beautiful copper color and are renowned for their good temperament. The Primo Tamworths dine on restaurant scraps and a cultivated cover crop of pea tendrils and rye grass throughout the summer and early fall, recycling Primo’s leftovers into delicious, healthy pork.  In late fall, the pigs provide the restaurant with a delicious variety of Italian cured meats; House made prosciutto, sopressata, guanciale, salumi, pancetta and lardo are ready by winter and are served on antipasti, pizzas from the wood oven, and other creations.

Just up the hill from the pigs, content in their co starring role, are the Italian honeybees. The bees are quiet workers, busy pollinating the diversely planted four acres. They produce up to six gallons of honey, harvested each fall, which will sweeten desserts and teas and compliment Primo cheese platters.The Primo gardens are a fully integrated part of the kitchen. They are cultivated with the ideal of providing a reciprocal bounty: from garden to kitchen, kitchen to table, and from the table back into the land. Vegetables arrive at the dinner table radiant with life, having been in the earth that morning. Everything from the Primo gardens is grown with the care necessary to compliment the creative vision of the chef, offering an unforgettable dining experience of unsurpassed freshness.