HOw to prepare the placenta?

[happy_momma]

Does anyone know how to prepare the placenta like beef jerky (and does it have a taste??) or how to encapsalate it?
thanks:

[engineer_mom]

http://www.babycatcher.com/pdf/placentaprep.doc

PREPARING THE PLACENTA for Non-Gross Consumption
By Vesper Stamper

1.Immediately after giving birth (and after inspection of the placenta), have the midwife or assistant cut off a ½” x 1” piece of the placenta and blend it in a smoothie with 1 cup yogurt, 1 cup berries, 1 banana and whatever else you desire.
2.Have her cut out about ten ½” x ½” pieces and set out to air dry.
3.Double-bag the placenta in freezer bags and place in freezer until ready to prepare.
4.When ready, take placenta out and let thaw at room temperature for about 1 hour.
5.With scrupulously clean, gloved hands, knife and cutting board (with a way to catch any mess), slice the entire placenta into 1” strips, the length of the placenta.
6.Place the strips on a rack in a baking pan with foil underneath and place in oven. You can put the strips on kebab skewers and that will help a lot. ALTERNATIVELY you can puree the strips in the blender and pour this into a pan to dehydrate.
7.Turn the oven on as low as you can; electric ovens can go as low as 150º. Keep on for 10 minutes, then shut off and leave off for the rest of the hour. (A kitchen timer is very helpful.) Above all, the placenta must not be cooked, in order to retain its properties.
8.Do this on-and-off dehydrating method until the placenta is completely dried out, like jerky or leather.
9.Place strips in a blender or food processor (I found the blender was better) and blend until it becomes a fine powder. You can freeze it at this point until you are ready for the next step.
10.When the baby is napping one day, grab the container of powder and a package of about 100 empty gelcaps. Scoop the powder into one half and cap with the other half. Store the caplets in the freezer until ready.
11.You can also reserve some of the powder and mix it with ghee (clarified butter—heat on low until the solids separate; reserve the clear butter as ghee) to make a wonderful diaper and general skin cream, used by German mothers to treat rash, eczema and other skin problems in baby or mom.

There you have a simple way to prepare the placenta in a non-offensive way. Consuming the placenta is very helpful in avoiding postpartum mood disorders and getting breastfeeding off to a great start.

[mrforbes]

I encapsulated mine. There's a woman who sells kits for encapsulation (Placenta Benefits Inc. - she has a website) but basically you just rinse it well, drain the veins, dry it in strips (we used our oven because we didn't have a dehydrater, but those are faster), grind it up (we used a coffee grinder) and put it in capsules.

[htiderem]

for us, we decided that it was easier to just do steps 1 - 4 above first. then my DH took the frozen pieces out to thaw, and blended up a nice 'smoothie' for me. he did this every night for about 7 days after the birth. i think that it REALLY helped me get through the baby blues.

using strawberries is really important. blueberries and honey were mixed in too.

trust me, this was hard for me to stomach before the birth, but after the birth it just seemed like a natural thing to do. not to mention, it really seemed to change my mood. literaly, almost overnight.

good luck.

[barefootpoetry]

Whoah, placenta jerky!! Can you eat it like that, as jerky? I imagine it wouldn't taste as good as beef jerky though...but it still intrigues me!

[mnearthmomma]

pretty sure I'm not eating it like jerky...but smoothie is not out of the question. I still have DD2's in the deep freezer and I'll have another in a number of weeks. My plan for their use is for mennapause. women in my family go into it in the early to mid thirties, and I'll be thirty next year. Of course, should I slip into some PPD, I'll use some in a smoothie, but it didn't happen last time-at least not so far that it wasn't controllable using lemon balm and st johns wart.

[barefootpoetry]

I'm gonna smoothie mine too. Gotta get some strawberries!