Oh, Kirsten , this sensitively written article reminds us to be proud of how we can indeed give back to the Earth! The topic of home burial is new to many so I am attaching a link. Spoiler alert: we all will have an end of life experience so might as well become educated to the facts and continue on our fermentation path! https://www.romemonuments.com/home-burials
Thanks so much for always interesting content. Your books continue to be my go to for all things fermentation, which I have more time to explore now that I’ve retired
I loved reading this piece. I find your writing beautiful with a soft flow, even when you talk about delicate subjects. Thank you for sharing this information, it made me put things into perspective regarding how one goes.... I hope you are very well !
Really enjoyed this. Here in the Philippines it is a four day weekend and everyone returns to their home province and spends the day at the cemetery with their ancestors. Here, I don't believe there is any sort of green burial trend happening yet (and I imagine the Catholic church would probably push back against it as they so often do here), it's still all embalming fluids and cremations (which I suppose if you scattered the ash, which I think is pretty illegal in a lot of places, it shortcuts all the microbial work and just returns a portion of the remaining nutrients back?). Then there's also the idea of letting fungi grow on the deceased's body which is really interesting too.
When one of our animals dies and I happen to be making a compost pile, I often throw it in and it's amazing how little of it remains.
For some reason, this all made me think of something slightly unrelated, have you ever heard about how there's grasslands in Greenland and much of their growth is thanks to all the midge/mosquito poop. I was trying to find a link to it but then wound up going down a slight rabbit hole about cultures that consume feces (the photos unfortunately (or fortunately??) didn't load for me: https://www.vice.com/en/article/this-shit-is-a-delicacy/)
Haha thanks for the article, and I am curious about the midge and mosquito poop. I would love to track that down.
How special that the tradition of honoring ones ancestors is still strong. We have always spent the evening (Nov 1) lighting a candle and telling a story about those who came before and it feels so good to bring the stories into the light.
As for cremation being part of the nutrient cycle -- it is my understanding the body's carbon when buried stays sequestered in the soil and when cremated it becomes a carbon emission. I also suspected that there is no nutrient left and a quick search found this: "Not only is the cremation process harmful to the environment but cremated remains themselves are inherently toxic to plants and the surrounding ecosystem. After the body has been burned what is left are large bone fragments, which are then put through a machine that grinds them down—these are the “ashes” we are familiar with and know. However, there’s very little ash in this material at all. The reality is the cremation process strips our bodies of almost all the nutrients it contains, and what’s left is highly concentrated with sodium and has an incredibly high pH (approximately 11.7). So, not only is the act of cremation harmful to the environment, but what is left of our bodies after the process is too." from https://larkspurconservation.org/blog/giving-cremated-remains-a-new-life-through-science
Oooh, very interesting about the cremation! Looks like it’ll be the compost heap for my dead body then… just have to find someone willing to build it for me haha
This Joe Roman has got an awesome book called “Eat, Poop, Die” and the first chapters talk about this new island formed in the last couple of decades and details how quickly life just develops on it, it’s pretty cool.
Thank you very much for for your newsletter. It was interesting and somewhat comforting. Happy Halloween!
I’m glad you enjoyed and also found it (perhaps weirdly) comforting. Thank you.
Oh, Kirsten , this sensitively written article reminds us to be proud of how we can indeed give back to the Earth! The topic of home burial is new to many so I am attaching a link. Spoiler alert: we all will have an end of life experience so might as well become educated to the facts and continue on our fermentation path! https://www.romemonuments.com/home-burials
🖤🩷 thanks Noel. And also for the link.
Thanks so much for always interesting content. Your books continue to be my go to for all things fermentation, which I have more time to explore now that I’ve retired
You’re welcome and thank you. Glad you have lots of time to play with your food now. Have fun!
I loved reading this piece. I find your writing beautiful with a soft flow, even when you talk about delicate subjects. Thank you for sharing this information, it made me put things into perspective regarding how one goes.... I hope you are very well !
Oh 🥰 Thank you. Your words and feelings about this mean a lot to me. I am quite well and hoping the same for you.
Really enjoyed this. Here in the Philippines it is a four day weekend and everyone returns to their home province and spends the day at the cemetery with their ancestors. Here, I don't believe there is any sort of green burial trend happening yet (and I imagine the Catholic church would probably push back against it as they so often do here), it's still all embalming fluids and cremations (which I suppose if you scattered the ash, which I think is pretty illegal in a lot of places, it shortcuts all the microbial work and just returns a portion of the remaining nutrients back?). Then there's also the idea of letting fungi grow on the deceased's body which is really interesting too.
When one of our animals dies and I happen to be making a compost pile, I often throw it in and it's amazing how little of it remains.
For some reason, this all made me think of something slightly unrelated, have you ever heard about how there's grasslands in Greenland and much of their growth is thanks to all the midge/mosquito poop. I was trying to find a link to it but then wound up going down a slight rabbit hole about cultures that consume feces (the photos unfortunately (or fortunately??) didn't load for me: https://www.vice.com/en/article/this-shit-is-a-delicacy/)
Haha thanks for the article, and I am curious about the midge and mosquito poop. I would love to track that down.
How special that the tradition of honoring ones ancestors is still strong. We have always spent the evening (Nov 1) lighting a candle and telling a story about those who came before and it feels so good to bring the stories into the light.
As for cremation being part of the nutrient cycle -- it is my understanding the body's carbon when buried stays sequestered in the soil and when cremated it becomes a carbon emission. I also suspected that there is no nutrient left and a quick search found this: "Not only is the cremation process harmful to the environment but cremated remains themselves are inherently toxic to plants and the surrounding ecosystem. After the body has been burned what is left are large bone fragments, which are then put through a machine that grinds them down—these are the “ashes” we are familiar with and know. However, there’s very little ash in this material at all. The reality is the cremation process strips our bodies of almost all the nutrients it contains, and what’s left is highly concentrated with sodium and has an incredibly high pH (approximately 11.7). So, not only is the act of cremation harmful to the environment, but what is left of our bodies after the process is too." from https://larkspurconservation.org/blog/giving-cremated-remains-a-new-life-through-science
Oooh, very interesting about the cremation! Looks like it’ll be the compost heap for my dead body then… just have to find someone willing to build it for me haha
Not sure if my other comment showed up; the midgie/mosquito Poop was from a podcast: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/131-joe-roman
This Joe Roman has got an awesome book called “Eat, Poop, Die” and the first chapters talk about this new island formed in the last couple of decades and details how quickly life just develops on it, it’s pretty cool.
Oh cool! 😎 Thank you!