A small, diversified farm, Rainbow Farm specializes in MOFGA-certified organic vegetables, as well as pasture-based chicken, pork, beef, and lamb, and is owned and operated by Noah and Lorelei Cimeno. Rainbow Farm is located on a fertile ridge in Orland, Maine, adjacent to Penobscot’s town line.
Although his parents weren’t farmers, Noah knew farming was his calling from a young age; he grew up in an off-grid, passive solar house in Franklin, Maine and started Rainbow Farm when he got his first chickens (at age seven). He came up with the name Rainbow Farm because of the diversity of animals on his farm— chickens, ducks, angora rabbits, goats, and even a donkey. In his teenage years, Noah raised about 200 sheep and spun their fleece into yarn that he knit into hats. When he was 18, he went to New Zealand for a winter and worked on several farms there, but ultimately returned to Maine, where he leased land on MDI to raise layer and broiler poultry.
The daughter of an enthusiastic gardener, Lorelei grew up on a small flower farm in Sullivan, ME. She enjoyed being surrounded with beautiful flowers that her mother grew, dried, and wove into sweet grass and cattail baskets. She went to school at Green Mountain College and became interested in farming after learning about the fragility of the food system. Lorelei worked on several Maine farms in her early adulthood and met Noah during a stint as a professional gardener on Mount Desert Island. Introduced by mutual friends who knew they’d hit it off, the couple eventually moved to Stockton Springs, Maine, where they established their first farm and built a passive solar house. In 2021, they relocated the farm to Orland, which is where they now live with their son Almanzo and all of the happy animals that make up Rainbow Farm. Lorelei and Noah are very grateful to be farming on the Blue Hill Peninsula and to be living in a community that’s so supportive of farmers (and to have so many other farmers nearby to help each other out). Currently, they are cultivating about 4 acres in vegetable production, raising and processing 7,000 meat birds per year, and grazing various other livestock on pasture.
Rainbow Farm employs Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGDs) to ensure that their poultry and sheep are protected from predation. With rural Maine’s abundant number of predators, chickens and turkeys would be unable to enjoy their free-range days without these Great Pyrenees— fortunately, this old and gentle breed love Maine winters. Their dogs excel at their jobs, and Noah and Lorelei love and appreciate them dearly. Each dog has its own unique personality and skills that they bring to their work. Currently, they have three Pyrenees guarding their livestock: Henry, Noodles, and Prairie. Henry has bonded especially to our poultry. He loved our laying chickens like no one else in the pack and would lay down to let them groom him as much as he could. Noodles joined the pack in November of 2021, when her first family in the big city could no longer keep her (because her nighttime alert barking bothered her neighbors). Noah and Lorelei knew that they could use her enthusiasm on the farm. Prairie is a fierce and determined protector. She is fast as lightning and will run at flying predators like nobody’s business. She is also the most shy and stubborn of the pack, but when she is finally tired enough to sit still, she loves belly rubs.
Rainbow Farm is committed to growing organic vegetables using regenerative practices. They work to actively build soils using compost made on the farm, rotating crops, and preventing erosion. Although not certified organic, the animals on the farm enjoy the outdoors for their entire lives, where they are free to eat grass, chase bugs, and live as nature intended. Noah and Lorelei recently installed solar panels, which help to reduce costs (thanks to a Rural Energy for America Program grant) but with federal funding cuts and delays to programs like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service), they’ve had to dig into their own savings to keep things moving. Margins are tight on small farms and waiting for reimbursements from federal funding have left many farmers in an uncomfortable position. Small farmers experience these cuts and delays deeper than larger industrial farms, which makes investing in climate smart practices without support more difficult. We need to give our local farms support—for the land, for the climate, for our people, and for Maine’s food future.
To support Rainbow Farm (and other small farms who might be struggling in these difficult times) keep an eye out for their products at the Blue Hill Co-op— right now, we have fresh ginger, curly kale and an abundance of superb carving pumpkins available in the Produce department. Additionally, you can find Rainbow Farm chicken (whole birds, breasts, and thighs) in the Meat department. There will be whole chickens, breasts, and thigh cuts delivered for the next two Saturdays, after which they will be done delivering for the season.
Noah and Lorelei have booths at a number of farmers’ markets throughout the summer, as well: The Saturday Blue Hill Farmers’ Market at the Fairgrounds (Memorial Day—Mid-October), The Sunday Bar Harbor YMCA market (Mother’s Day—Halloween), The Stonington Farmers’ Market (Mother’s Day—September), and the Northeast Harbor Marina Market (June—August). They participate in Farm Drop, which is an online farmers’ market with scheduled weekly pickup locations across the Blue Hill Peninsula, Stonington, Ellsworth, Mount Desert Island, Orono, Bucksport, Northport, and Stockton Springs. If you are in Orland, be sure to stop in at their farmstand for farm fresh produce and meat products at 4 Rainbow Farm Drive in Orland, ME 04472. The farmstand is the first building on the left as you pull into Rainbow Drive. Rainbow Farm is also hiring for the 2026 season and offers competitive pay— contact them at rainbowfarm41@gmail.com or (207)610-3793 for more information.
