Photo Karen Graham. Gillian di Petta with her line of homemade salves and balms to soothe the skin. Ingredients like calendula is harvested in her garden and steeped for weeks in olive oil.
Gillian di Petta is one of this year’s new Millbrook Market vendors. Her cottage industry is called Wylde Folk, where she creates and sells natural, ecofriendly, small batch products designed to address scrapes and scratches encountered in everyday life. Her salves and balms soothe bruises, bug bites, sun burn, and oh yes, that pervasive modern-day affliction, stress.
Growing up on a rural property outside Millbrook, Gillian has always been surrounded by nature which continues to inspire her work and play. Her products stem from her hard-earned insight that a side effect of exploring nature is some mild discomfort acquired on the journey.
Her unofficial environmental education at home was supplemented by traditional studies of Ecosystem Management at Fleming College and Herbal Studies with the Herbal Academy of New England. As the Garden & Outreach Coordinator at Alderville Black Oak Savanna on the south shore of Rice Lake, Gillian shares her expertise maintaining an interpretive garden based on native Ontario plants and consulting to other organizations on native plant gardens.
Wylde Folk products are reasonably priced, locally and intentionally created. They include skin products such as soothing balms made from many home grown or locally-sourced ingredients such as calendula, rose petals, basil and peppermint, wrapped in a soothing olive oil or local beeswax base. She also offers fragrant bath products, oil for beards, homemade candles and small succulent plants in original planters created by her father, a ceramic artist.
Photo Karen Graham.
In her business venture, Gillian strives to provide local, natural self-care products for everyday issues and ailments, using organic, environmentally-friendly methods and locally-sourced, natural ingredients. Her products are inspired by the “wildness of the world” and developed with a respect for the land and all it provides.
Visit Gilliam’s booth at next month’s market or her website at www.wyldefolk.ca to learn more. KG
