Speaking of....

I've been doing tons of research into all manner of birth and baby related issues, items, and ideas - all of which hold equal importance and interest for me as we reach the halfway mark of our pregnancy. At four and a half months I'm gloriously immersed in all things baby and have recently been making decisions on everything from cord blood banking (no thank you), to glass or plastic bottles (glass is the obvious and immeditae choice), plastic or cloth diapers (cloth, without a doubt - although sadly there is no diaper service in the small Washington town we plan to situate ourselves in for the birth of this little basketball), to strollers (yes, we really *do* need to spend $500 on a Bob...) and so on....

But one thing I have yet to come to a solid conclusion on is what exactly to do with the placenta after the baby is born. Now, I have no intention of following the fry-it-up-into-pate habits of some families. I'm vegetarian and that pretty much includes preparing and eating my own body parts as a meal. Although I will say I offer no disrespect to those who do make this choice - it's very cool to be so very much at one with your body and the process of birth that you come literally full circle and ingest the nourishing sac that held and grew your baby for nine months...it's just not something that rings true for me individually.

Birth, and all the bloody muck that comes along with it, is a totally personal and natural experience, or at least it should be... In the west we've really done a number on ourselves, removing anything truly natural and normal about the process so that practically all of us are scheduled for neat and tidy C-sections at the convenience of our attending physicians. I, for one, am thrilled to not only be able to access choices that will facilitate a return to 'normal and natural' but to experiment with birth rituals practiced by post-labor mothers all over the world.

With all that said, I am very curious about the less, shall we say, gastronomic way of utilizing the placenta - an organ that is otherwise regarded as worthless and thrown in the trash at hospitals all over the country (and nevermind the French who mix it up into every possible cosmetic concoction they can come up with). I think I've found a nice middle ground somewhere between 'placenta with shallots' and the sad waste of tossing it all away as useless: drying and encapsulation. Preserving and then taking the placenta in this way, like a vitamin, is believed to have positive effects on the post-partum woman for anything from the very common postpartum depression and anxiety to helping with the natural flow of breastmilk and thus promoting the healthy, natural relationship between mother and child.


Now, for those who found this post by way of a Google search for placenta recipes, I won't be needing these:

Placenta Cocktail:
1/4 cup raw placenta
8oz vegetable juice
2 ice cubes
1/2 cup carrot
Blend at high speed for 10 seconds

Placenta Lasagne:
Using a standard lasagne recipe, substitute the following for one layer of cheese:
In 2 tbl. olive oil, quickly saute meat of 3/4 placenta, ground or minced; plus 2 sliced cloves of garlic, 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1/2 diced onion & 2 tbl. tomato paste, or 1 whole tomato.

Placenta Spaghetti:
Cut meat of 3/4 placenta into bite size pieces, then brown quickly in 1 tbl. butter plus 1 tbl. oil. Add 1 large can tomato puree, 2 cans crushed pear tomatoes, 1 onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1 tbl. molasses, 1 bay leaf, 1 tbl. rosemary, 1 tsp. ea. of salt, honey, oregano, basil, and fennel. Simmer 1 1/2 hours.

Placenta Stew:
Meat of 3/4 placenta in bite size chunks, 1 potato (cubed), 1/4 cup fresh parsley, 2 carrots, 3 stalks celery, 1 zucchini, 1 large tomato, 1 small onion. Dredge meat in 1 tbl. flour mixed with 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. paprika, pinch of cloves, pinch of pepper, 6-8 crushed coriander seeds. Saute meat in 2 tbl. oil, then add vegetables (cut up) and 4-5 cups of water. Bring to full boil, then simmer for 1 hour.

Placenta Pizza:
Grind placenta. Saute in 2 tbl. olive oil with 4 garlic cloves, then add 1/4 tsp. fennel, 1/4 tsp. pepper, 1/4 tsp. paprika, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1/4 tsp. thyme, and 1/4 cup of wine. Allow to stand for 30 minutes, then use with your favorite home made pizza recipe. It's a fine placenta sausage topping.


Bon appetit!