Flower Child
Sarah DuBose knows what it’s like to be the new kid, the one who doesn’t quite feel at home. She created Sassafrass Flowers at Reedy River Farms with her literal bare hands, and it’s become a safe and beautiful haven, inclusive of everyone. And just as she’s opened her fields to the public, she’s opened up about her personal journey that led her here.
Words by: Ariel H. Turner
Photos by: Olivier Blanchard
‘I’m A Sunflower’
DuBose laughs, begrudgingly, at her answer to the question: What type of flower from your farm represents you? To her, it seems almost too obvious of a choice with so many other options from which to choose. Sunflowers, however, with their tall, proud stalks topped with a golden yellow imitations of the sun are universally loved and enjoyed, bringing smiles and happiness to everyone who sees either a single stem or, in this case, a field bursting with blooms. That couldn’t represent DuBose more.
Her ability to bring a smile to even the most curmudgeon of human is undeniable, and it’s a skill she cultivated out of necessity from a young age.
“I learned the ability to be friendly and make people happy,” she says. “I had to make people be my friend quickly.”
‘I’m From a Family of Gypsies’
DuBose attended five different schools in her four years of high school.
“We moved around all the time,” she says.
She’s the type to never meet a stranger, but she developed that ability because there was no time to waste. For all she knew, she could be moving again and wanted to make the most of the time she had with the people she met in every town she lived.
“I remember seeing miserable people a lot. People lived in the same town forever and they were these bitter curmudgeons. I was the new girl in town, so I could be fun and exciting. I wanted to make people happy,” DuBose says.
Often she felt she had to fake the enthusiasm. At one point as a teenager, she employed an interesting tactic.
“I changed my name to my middle name, Liz, at one high school to be cool,” she says.
‘I’m Just a Big Goober’
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.
‘I want to go to church’
DuBose took the event-hosting seriously and built a pavilion over the 2021-22 off season from which local musicians serenade her U-PICK guests and party-goers dance the night away.
The next ticketed U-PICK is planned for June 12, a Sunday, during brunch hours. She’s never attempted this format before, but she envisions families, couples and everyone in between having a near-religious experience with Darby Wilcox on the mic and Fork & Plough’s locally famous shrimp ‘n’ grits and mimosas in hand. Picking flowers isn’t actually required, but is certainly encouraged.
The U-PICKs are only the beginning of her plans, though. She’s booked corporate events, bridal showers, Blooms and Tunes for little ones, yoga classes, a new seasonal workshop series, and she wants to do more.
“I want a 6 year old to come out and have a tea party, and go out and pick flowers,” she says.
Get event information and tickets here.