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“The woods gal, that’s what they called me.” Emma Dupree, 1898-1996. Photos by Mary Anne McDonald.

Emma Dupree was a respected herbal healer in Pitt County, North Carolina: “From the time she could walk, Emma felt drawn to the land. She would roam the woods, plucking, sniffing, tasting weeds. She grew up that way, collecting the leaves, stems, roots, and bark of sweet gum, white mint, mullein, sassafras in her coattail or a tin bucket. She’d tote them back to the farm, rinse them in well water and tie them in bunches to dry. In the backyard, she’d raise a fire under a kettle and boil her herbs to a bubbly froth, then pour it up in brown-necked stone jugs: a white-mint potion for poor circulation; catnip tea for babies with colic; tansy tea - hot or cold - for low blood sugar; mullein tea for a stomach ache …” — Paige Williams