DuBose moved to the Upstate, landing in Anderson in 2005, when she got married. After her divorce in 2009, she moved to downtown Greenville, and it was then that she first began to really put down roots and cultivate a true group of friends. Prior to that, she’d worried deep down she wasn’t actually as cool as she wanted people to think she was.
When she met her now-husband, George, and owner of Reedy River Farms, she shifted from work in a hospital system to learning to care for the earth. The idea for Sassafrass Flowers was born, and she moved to Easley to grow her family and new adventure.
“Now that I’m in a garden and have centered my core on a farm, now it’s like ‘oh, people are still going to be my friend.’ That was the hardest part about moving out of downtown Greenville. For one second I had that fear that I was out of the loop,” DuBose says.
Instead, she began to turn her working farm into a destination.
For those who attend Sassafrass U-PICK events—during which guests are able to pop a bottle, enjoy a picnic, and cut stem after stem of gorgeous blooms—it’s clear DuBose has developed a place that not only welcomes all demographics but makes everyone feel at home.
“I have this weird empathy. I can feel when someone’s uncomfortable, because I know how it feels to be on the other side,” she says.