STANDISH — Farm-to-table dinners highlighting local agriculture are nothing new in Maine, but they are a recent addition to Saint Joseph’s College.

The school is hosting several such dinners at its Stone Barn this summer, and the events are being led by two chefs from different – but complementary – backgrounds.

Chefs Mary Paine and Scott Walsh are the culinary forces behind the college’s series of six farm dinners featuring locally sourced foods that started earlier this summer and will wrap up in early October.

“He’s a meat guy, I was more of a vegetarian cook,” Paine said.

“She complements any weakness that I have in the culinary field,” Walsh said. “That’s what I like about working with her, it’s so complementary. She gets it.”

“We’re really lucky,” Paine said about their kitchen partnership.

Walsh, 54, lives in Casco and has been a chef at Saint Joseph’s for about nine years. A former Marine, he previously owned a gourmet food truck called Fire and Spice and has “always been drawn to the protein part of the meal,” particularly when he can cook on an open fire. They’ve been using his personal smoker for some of the dinners thus far.

Paine, 55, lives in Limerick and has been a chef at the college for about four months. She has previously cooked on various Maine islands, including North Haven, where she worked at the Nebo Lodge owned by Congresswoman Chellie Pingree.

The farm dinners come with a $100 price tag per person and include a six-course meal, drinks and gratuity. The next one will be held Sept. 24 at the Stone Barn, located at 289 Whites Bridge Road in Standish. The planned menu, which the chefs said they don’t finalize until the week of the dinner based on available local ingredients, is: Charcuterie table with cured meat, local cheese, house-made mustard, passed tempura vegetables with spicy honey dipping sauce, farm greens, amuse bouche, grilled seasoned half chicken with fennel gratin and Maine wild berry trifle. More information and registration is available on the Stone Barn’s website.

“It’s just really good food, and it’s not meant to be pretentious,” Paine said. “It’s really about just opening up the whole idea of coming into this barn and sharing a meal. And we use all parts of the school to get it together.”

Walsh estimated that about half of the support staff for the events are students, with the goal being to move toward 100 percent.

Walsh said that experience “gets students involved with different aspects of hospitality business such as bartending, serving … and all the other aspects that go along with a farm to table dinner.”

Saint Joseph’s does not currently have a hospitality major, but a spokeswoman said that there is a long-term effort to start one as part of the college’s strategic plan.

Another key component to the dinners, Walsh and Paine emphasized, is the local ingredients. Walsh said that along with sourcing meats and produce from Maine farms, they are also using local vendors for beer, wine and liquor.

Local producers supplying goods for the dinners include Hancock Farms in Casco and Silvery Moon Creamery in Westbrook.

“Our goal is to support the smaller, individual farms,” Walsh stressed.

While Walsh has been providing the smoker for the meats, Paine has been clipping herbs from her yard.

“It’s very personal to us,” Paine said.

“There’s nothing cookie-cutter about what these barn suppers are doing,” she added.

Matt Junker can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 123 or mjunker@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @MattJunker.

Saint Joseph’s College farm dinner chef’s Scott Walsh, left, and Mary Paine with Walsh’s smoker outside of the college’s Stone Barn.

Guests await a course at a farm dinner held at the Stone Barn on the Saint Joseph’s College campus in Standish.