Cornelius business offers fresh lamb cuts from sheep raised among solar arrays
April 11, 2025
Sheep graze among solar arrays at the Montgomery Sheep Farm. /Courtesy Sun Raised Foods
CORNELIUS – Lamb is a popular choice for Easter meals, but do you know where your lamb comes from? Cornelius business Sun Raised Foods can do more than tell you, it can show you.
Sun Raised Foods, which has a storefront at 20035 Jetton Road, works in conjunction with Sun Raised Farms in Biscoe, N.C., to provide farm-to-table lamb products.
“Being a part of the local food system, being part of the local farming system, (we provide) a pasture-raised product the way Mother Nature intended; it is something we’re proud of,” said Brooks Mixon of Sun Raised Foods.
Mixon said 60% of lamb consumed in the United States is imported.
“That’s too much when there are wonderful sheep farmers here in North Carolina that are raising wonderful local product,” he said. “A large, very large part of that 60% is from New Zealand and Australia, which is 8,000 to 10,000 miles away. There’s zero local about it. It couldn’t be further away, as a matter of fact.”
So Sun Raised Foods has made it its mission to raise awareness about local sheep farmers while also providing a quality product at its store and farmer’s markets in Davidson and Matthews. The company began in 2018 but primarily sold to restaurants; when COVID decimated the restaurant industry, Sun Raised Food decided it was time to market directly to consumers. It now hosts farm-to-table dinners several times a year at its 200-acre research farm in Montgomery County, about 90 miles from the Lake Norman area.
“You know, I think COVID, in a way, there was a silver lining in that it encouraged folks to really embrace even more so local products and supporting local farmers and that local food system,” Mixon said.
At the dinner events, participants get a tour of the Montgomery Sheep Farm to see first-hand where their meal is coming from before indulging in a four-course dinner with wine pairings, featuring seasonal ingredients from local farms. The chef even provides tips and tricks on how to prepare lamb.
Guests also learn about the company’s dual land use of sustainable agriculture and clean energy by grazing sheep on solar farms. Montgomery Sheep Farm has about 500 sheep and 120 acres of solar panels.
Solar + Sheep
The owners of Sun Raised Foods first began grazing sheep on solar farms in 2012 after realizing that the two could have a symbiotic relationship.
“The whole idea was to provide these solar developers – large-scale solar developers and solar owners – with a more sustainable grounds maintenance program. Every large solar farm you may drive by, see one off the side of the road, they’re going to have some means of vegetation management,” Mixon explained. “And we decided to employ a more sustainable means of using sheep versus gas-powered machinery. So we’re able to provide sheep farmers around North Carolina with extra added acreage to grow his or her flock of sheep. The sheep could maintain the landscape while the solar farms could provide pasture for the sheep to roam.”
The Montgomery Sheep Farm was purchased for research to help the owners develop best practices they could share with their partners. It’s an Animal Welfare Approved farm, something they require of all their partner farms to guarantee that animals are raised outdoors on pasture or range and ensure high-welfare practices from birth to slaughter.
“We do think it’s important that any farming practice should employ animal welfare standards. I think it results in better products, and the animals, while they’re in our care, ideally are grazing out at pasture the way Mother Nature intended,” Mixon said.
Sun Raised Foods also tries to utilize the whole animal to honor the animal’s life, selling cuts that range from chops and legs to bones for bone broth, lamb liver, heart and kidneys.
To find out more about Sun Raised Foods, cuts of lamb, recipes and more, visit sunraisedfoods.com.