When I was a youngster, about 9 years old, one of my friends lived in
the small group of families who shared a common property behind my
Parents house.

That entire property was owned by a Native American family, (I don't
recall which tribe), and the oldest member was (as close as she could
calculate), about 100 years old. Her daughter ran the household in the
main house and was the overseer for the rest of the families who live
on the property.

Her name was pronounced "Namey", but had no written form that she was
aware of, as she couldn't read or write.

Namey was the very first person to ever make me aware of the wild
foods that share our world naturally, without human involvement.

About once each week, she would go on an adventure around the area
about one mile from her home and gather about a bushel of wild plants
that would be included in the family's meals for the week.

The area is now known as "Northern Potomac" in north-central Maryland.

As we walked, she would hold her over-sized apron as a basket, and
carefully segregate each item within it as she gathered them. As she
did this, she would tell me about each new type that I hadn't learned
yet, and tell me everything she knew about that plant and what it
could be used for in foods and medicines.

At the time, I thought of her as being one of the most intelligent
people I had ever met in my short life. I was fascinated by her
knowledge of the world of plants.

Wild garlic was one of my favorites. She would pick it as mature
plants and carefully take the entire plant, roots and all. She would
take one from five, leaving the other four for future seeding and
supply. There was so much available that this was easy to do and
ensured a never ending supply of plants.

By the time we arrived back at her home, I would be in front, holding
as much as I could by grasping the two leading corners of her apron,
over my shoulder. She had to be at least 80, so this helped her quite
a bit.

Namey also had but one foot. The other was lost in a "White mans
animal trap" which she inadvertently stepped into when she was a young
girl. In it's place, she had a "peg-leg" much like pictured in the old
pirate movies.

In the house, if one of us children misbehaved, she could whack us
with that wooden peg on our shins and between that and her big wooden
spoon that she carried most of the day, she was formidable and
something to be feared if not behaving to her high standards.

Frankly, I learned to love her as if she were my own Mother. She was
the first adult in my life to die, and it almost destroyed me when I
was told two days later on my next visit to see her. They said she had
a heart attack in the front yard while weeding one of her flower beds.

Well, since then, I've graduated to the "Natural Medicines
Comprehensive Database" (ISBN 0-9676136-4-7) which lists over one
thousand natural medicines within it's 2,300 pages. My copy was given
to me by my Doctor at the Mayo clinic in 2000, but the most recent
issue of it is available at $60 for the 2010 version.

All I can say about the book is that it's one of the most fantastic
books I've ever seen. I've looked up everything Namey told me about
and she was correct on every single one of the plants.

I thought you all might be interested in both Namey's story and this
book.