Wool Gathering

Cathe Capel owns Seven Sisters Farm in Sidney, Illinois -- her place is about 20 minutes away from Backyard Industry's HQ in Urbana-Champaign. The premises are small, but the presence of sheep on the farm is HUGE. Sure, there are the gardens and the beehives and the chickens and the guinea fowl and Tigger, the three-legged cat. But sheep reign supreme. Why? Wool. And Backyard Industry's Lisa Bralts learned that there's no better place to learn more about where the wool in your hat or sweater came from than to a) learn from a master and b) actually have a hand in the annual springtime ritual of shearing the sheep. But you need to eat lunch first.

Backyard Industry's mission: To enlighten, inspire, and encourage viewers, listeners, and readers with short audio and video stories about the frequently hidden intersections between food, tradition, community, projects, and practice in Central Illinois, the Midwest, and beyond. In other words, we want you to see and hear about local people doing interesting food-related projects ... and then we want you to consider doing your own food-related projects, and then we want you to take the plunge...with your own spin on them and at your own pace. Do it!

Backyard Industry's creator/producer/explorer-in-chief is Lisa Bralts.

Backyard Industry's director of photography/editor/stickler for detail is Tim Meyers.

Backyard Industry's project manager/second camera/main cheerleader is Jack Brighton.

Our pals at Automatic Empire provided all music, and we puffy heart them with glitter for it.

Special thanks to Cathe, Harold Davis, Dick Cobb, Roxanne Sawhill, and Tigger the Cat for their time and being so dang cool.