fig tree grows out of a dead man's stomach (with Trees Eat Us All video)

Okay, that does look like a click-bait subject, but truth is some times stranger than fiction.

The actual article title is even more dramatic:  Murdered man's body found after tree 'unusual for the area' grew from seed in his stomach

It made me think of all the natural burial threads we have on these forums, but I didn't want to hijack any of those good threads with this, so I'll just list a few of them here.

podcast 175: tree bogs and natural burials
Green Family Cemetery
First Permaculture Cemetery?
Green burial in Victoria BC. The frugal, better choice, and it's happening now.
Worth Sharing: Conserving Our Forests with "Dying Green"

It's a real-life example of Charlie Mgee's (of Formidable Vegetable Sound System) tribute to Bill Mollison:



As graphic as it is, wouldn't most permies dream of growing a tree at the end of their life cycle?

(And what forums *does* this subject belong in??)

Seems more ambitious than pushing up daisies.

Would anyone eat the figs though?

Thank you for posting the links to the green burial.  This has really been something I am considering.  

Good point, Dale! Ambitions, even in death. (? )

L. Tims wrote:Would anyone eat the figs though?

I think human bodies do tend to be pretty toxic. I probably wouldn't want to eat one, at least not for some time.

Anne, those green burial threads are pretty awesome. Lots of good discussions there. I enjoyed looking them up myself.

And the crazy thing . . . his middle name was Newton.

Cemeteries in Turkish culture are the green areas with cypress trees growing among the graves. A dense population of cypress, oaks, pines populate the cemetery.
Also the bodies buried in soil with just a covering of white sheet, 2 meters down.
As a result of decomposing body, trees get a lot of nitrogen and grow lush and green like the example below where I used to play at as a kid in my home town.

Was listening to a great story on NPR about Conservation Burials - very similar to what the good doctor in the last link is doing.

Once a body is buried on a property, that property cannot be developed in any sort of way. There's more to it than that - but it enables the deceased to die, be buried, to have their families intimately involved in the process (something humans did routinely prior to the Civil War) and to quietly decompose in an area that will never be developed into something depressing - like a strip mall with the requisite Pho place, nail salon, Starbucks and insurance company of questionable ethics.

And I would totally eat the figs. Especially if someone nearby died and a prosciutto tree grew out of their stomach.*

http://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/resources/natural-burial#2

Interesting side note about cremation that I did not know - one cremation uses the energy equivalent of a 4800 mile car ride. (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/13/green-burials-reduce-environmental-impact_n_1144440.html#s539634&title=Also_on_The). So that's a thing.


*Absolutely no offense to the gentleman who died, in any sort of way.