The Plants That Found Me in the Bahamas

Shamika Miller and Annita Francis , Bahamas 2026

Note: The following story is shared from the founder of What Grandma Said, Shamika Miller

While in the Bahamas, I was doing what I always do when I travel — looking for the plant people.

The herbalists.
The ones who know the land.
The ones who can tell you what grows where and what it’s used for.

So I’m walking through a local market, just browsing, looking for postcards, taking it all in… and I meet two women.

We start talking, and I ask them if they know any herbalists.

And they look at me… a little confused.

So I pause for a second and said “Bush doctors?”

Baby… their whole energy changed.

They lit up.

Because in that moment, I realized something simple but powerful:

Sometimes it’s not that people don’t know the work…
it’s that we’re not using the same language.

They started telling me about the plants around them, what they used, what their families used.

One of the women, Annita Francis, even shared how she used a plant to support her husband’s cataracts.

And before I knew it, Rah Hill (What Grandma Said Intern) and I were being invited to her home.

She welcomed us onto her land, land that had been passed down through her family, and began introducing us to the plants growing right in her yard.

I will be sharing more about these plants and what I have learned about them in my next post, but she showed me:

Noni.
Moringa.
Avocado — planted by her father-in-law back in 1951.
Yellow hibiscus.
Cerasee.

Not in a classroom.
Not in a book.
But right there… in real life in her garden.

She fed us.
She shared stories.
She opened her home.
And I just sat there thinking…
This is what herbalism looks like.
Not always labeled.
Not always formal.
But deeply rooted in culture, family, and lived experience.

What I am taking from this experience is that knowledge is everywhere.
Across countries.
Across cultures.
Across generations.
It might be called something different.
It might look a little different.
But the root of it is the same.

People caring for themselves and their families with what grows around them reminded me of something we say all the time…
“This knowledge didn’t start with us…we’re just continuing it.”

Sometimes the barrier isn’t access, it could be language; but just know the “herbalist” you’re looking for…
might be called something else.
A bush doctor.
A grandmother.
An elder or someone who knows the land.
This experience is staying with me and I will cherish it because it reminded me that this work isn’t limited to one place, one title, or one way of learning.
It’s alive and it’s still being practiced… all over the world.
We just have to know how to recognize it.

And if something about this resonates with you — the curiosity, the connection, the desire to learn — What Grandma Said offers classes and herbal products that help you begin that journey in a grounded, accessible way.
You don’t have to know everything.
You just have to start.