The Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center has a video on their Facebook page of my great-grandmother, Pearl (Hopper) Martin, explaining how to make a spring tonic as part of a JFG tea commercial. As she explains in the video,

After a cold winter, spring was the time to renew the spirit and tone up the system with a tonic, and the mountain people used to use tea for that.

I don't have the recipe; it wasn't passed down to me. The three eldest of Ma's daughters are now deceased, including my grandmother. I have no idea who would know exactly how to make Ma's spring tonic (other than what's shared in the video about sassafras, spicebush, and sweet birch), but it does make for an interesting video.

I was about eight years old when Ma passed away, and yes, I knew her. She was a raw-boned mountain woman of the finest sort. Dad loved her dearly. He frequently tells stories about her, including the time a squirrel bit her at the woodpile. She caught it and wrung its neck with her bare hands.

Now, that's a tough woman!