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Edith Zillig was born and raised on a farm in the province of Pomerania, Germany. She studied at the Agricultural College of Potsdam before gaining employment as a farm manager. In 1954 she immigrated to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and one year later married Gernot Zillig, who had also recently emigrated from Germany. In 1958 the Zilligs bought 150 acres overlooking the Kennetcook River in Scotch Village, Nova Scotia. Although they were interested initially in mixed farming, after concluding that the land was better suited to livestock, they began to build up a variety of cattle, swine, domestic waterfowl and sheep, including six mature crossbred Suffolk ewes from the Annapolis Valley.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Edith and Gernot belonged to the provincial sheep farmers' association, which later became the Sheep Producers Association of Nova Scotia (SPANS). Between 1973-1983 she was an active promoter of the Nova Scotia sheep industry through SPANS sheep fairs and served as the association's director during the mid-1980s. In 1981 she was appointed Western Director of the Nova Scotia Wool Marketing Board, a position she held until 1993. In addition, she maintained an interest in the Purebred Sheep Breeders Association of Nova Scotia.

Edith continued to farm and raised sheep after the death of her husband in 1993, working with her son, Manfred, and her daughter, Margaret, until her own death in 2009.