More about Lisa and her shop: WILD ROOTS & TWISTED FIBERS

I am a mother, a wife, a farmer and a girl who absolutely loves the land. Just as I love all the seasons here in Ontario. Early spring is when it all begins here on Hill Top Farm. I start the new season by collecting sap from our sugar maples. I sit by our homemade outdoor boiler for days/weeks boiling down the sap. I make syrup, candy, fudge, and my favourite—maple sugar! I find the sugar-making conversion magical, really. By May, we are into shearing the alpacas. Sorting, skirting, bagging up the fleece and sending it to a great Ontario fiber mill. Of course, I save some raw fiber for my felt-making, dyeing, spinning and even for the birds!

Then comes the summer hunt for various herbs and weeds from our organic fields, which I infuse all summer long in organic oils. By fall, my herbal-salve making is in full swing. Winter usually finds me in my studio where I make soap, mittens and felted everything. It’s also where I diddle-daddle and daydream.

In addition to all of our farm animals, we have three Great Pyrenees that guard and patrol the fence line all night, and sleep with one eye open all day. We also have a miniature dachshund and our newest addition is an “American Indian Dog” puppy.

I am also a professional dreamer with a whimsy for things of days gone by. Everything from old barns (preferably filled with antiques!), weather vanes and cookstoves to covered bridges and horse-and-buggies. I get lost just thinking about all that great stuff! Oh, I can keep it together just long enough to get Maddy to school, but then my mind wanders back to the world I long for—simplicity, creativity and wholesome living. - Lisa Zoschke