Country Kitchen Cures

Artist Statement

Shirley and James Lisenby of Robeson County have a salve for what ails you. Between the two of them, the couple has years of experience using herbs to heal everything from arthritis to earaches. “We don’t tell you not to go to the doctor,” explains James, “we just tell you, ‘try this before you go.’” Though Shirley’s mother and grandmother used herbs to heal, she did not learn those skills growing up. It was only when she had prayed sufficiently, she explains, that God pointed her back toward her family’s healing tradition. “I’ve done this over the years by myself,” she says. “I’d say my ancestors was teaching me, the ones that are dead and gone on that teach me.” Shirley began making her patent salve soon after her marriage to James in the late 1980s. Shirley and James forage and process their own herbs. Depending on the ailment or injury, different herbs in the salve work together to provide holistic healing. Sycamore leaves are good for poison oak. Comfrey and plantain are good for sores and bruises. And, despite the fact that such salves cannot be approved by the FDA without including certain artificial ingredients, Shirley insists on keeping it all natural: “I don’t want no chemicals in mine, all mine’s natural. Just plain herbs.” The Lisenbys have many stories of the people who their salve has helped. The most notable are, perhaps, Shirley and James themselves. “I’ve lost weight, I feel better, I can walk, I don’t hurt all the time,” remarks James. “I don’t take pills no more.” Their family concurs. “My daughter has to use it because she likes to wear open-heel shoes and stuff a lot,” says Shirley. “She says, ‘Mama, if it wasn’t for that salve my heels would be ruined!’ Because that stuff really works.” For Shirley and James Lisenby, healing is more than just a way to make a living. “It comes right back to our faith, the way we feel in our heart,” explains Shirley. “A lot of people say we’re just a child of God. We’re not Baptist, we’re not Holiness, we’re not anything else. We’re just a child of God.” For them, that means sharing their gifts with family and community. James nods in agreement: “If she feels something in her heart to do, she does it…If it wasn’t for her making it, the good Lord teaching her, I’d be dead.”