***Guest Post***Enjoying the Free Bounty Alaska Has to Offer

*This is a guest post from my husband, Bryon.  Give him props.  This is his first blog post and I think he did awesome!!!*

This morning I decided to take a couple of picking buckets along with me while walking our son to the bus stop.  Two hours later I made my way back home.  Oh, and the bus stop is only a 3-4 minute walk from the front door.

Do you ever find it hard to stop picking?  The wife and I joke about having a little OCD when it comes to picking berries.  Oh but there are a few more over here let me just get these then we can go in.  Yeah right, that never happens.

Off to the dehydrator for most of these little beauties.  The Birch boletes dry nicely, the quaking aspens dry up dirty (discolor but are still good), and this will be the first try for dehydrating the slippery jacks.

Picked too many for the dehydrator, oh well I guess we can always make some more fried mushrooms out of the little slippery jacks.

This was our dinner last night, deep fried slippery jacks (Dipped in egg and breaded in 1/2 and 1/2 bread crumbs and flour), along with hamburgers with sauted slippery jacks (sauted in 2 tbsp butter and garlic)

Rowan, Tell Us How You Really Feel...

One finger speaks volumes....

He was telling us even before he was born!

I love my baby boy!!  Don't worry Rowan, I used to do this a lot too (except I was old enough to know better!)

Shhhh...Be Very, Very Quiet...We're Hunting Mushrooms

No, not the psychedelic kind....well, we've found them....but we've only ingested the boring, edible, non-psychedelic 'shrooms, PROMISE!

Since we have moved up to Alaska we have taken a larger interest in foraging.  This is something that has always sparked curiosity in me and now I am finally starting to educate myself on it.  While we've done a few types of foraging, mushroom hunting is our big interest at the moment.

Alaska has TONS of different types of mushrooms.  It is insane how many types exist!  We went and bought some books (any hobby that lets me buy a book is a hobby that I like!) on mushroom identifying and have been researching the internet extensively.

We found at least ten different types in the woods around our yard alone!

These are the mushrooms we found in about 30 minutes around our house!

After we collected our mushrooms we looked through our books and attempted to identify them.  The next step was to make a spore print of the types we wanted to identify further.  Call me paranoid, but I want to make sure that we are accurately identifying the mushrooms we intend to eat.  No reason to make an ER trip for an accidental poisoning

After about 12 hours, this is what shows up on paper.

We have now increased our confidence in identifying certain mushroom types.  We have tried a couple of different mushrooms to eat.  The puffball variety is fantastic!  We have also tried the birch bolete and the trembling aspen bolete.  I have enjoyed the flavor of all of them.  Of course we are being very careful and only eating a small amount of only one type at a time just in case!  They are exceptionally good sauteed in butter with some garlic added.  And for all of you texture nuts out there (I'm one of them, not judging!) the texture didn't bother me in the slightest!

Example of a puffball mushroom.  We didn't eat this one because we had handled so many mushrooms that day and were worried about cross-contamination.

Birch boletes that we found.

We definitely will always retain a healthy respect for those 'shrooms that can kill you.  However, now that we have some knowledge, wild mushrooms don't seem near as scary!  In fact, some are quite tasty!!!

Crazy Things My Husband Does in His Sleep

At approximately 2:00 am this morning, I wake to my husband thrashing around frisking me.  I asked him what he was doing and the conversation goes like this:

Me:  What are you doing?? (in a half-asleep voice)

Bryon:  Looking for the eggs I bought.

Me:  Well, hopefully they aren't here in the bed.

Bryon:  Of course they aren't! (In a "did you seriously just say that" tone)

Me:  I think you are dreaming.  I love you.

Bryon: What?  I couldn't hear you.

I repeat myself.

Bryon: Okay, love you too.

I thought by this point I had woken him up out of his dream...then he started frisking the bed and me again.

Bryon: I guess they aren't here.

And he rolls over like nothing ever happened.

I love my husband! He makes me laugh in the middle of the night!! :)

Why, Yes I Did Eat My Placenta!

I have intrigued many of my family and friends by telling them that I ate my placenta after Rowan was born.  I'll let that sink in for a minute...

***FYI There will be pics of my placenta in this post, I'm just letting y'all know now before you delve too deep. If you can't handle that...turn back now!!  But, it's not as gross as it may seem.***

Okay, so I didn't fry my placenta up and eat it with a side of french fries.  I had it encapsulated.  Placental encapsulation is actually not as uncommon as you might think.

Backing up a bit.  Long ago, when I was still pregnant and working (seems like eons ago now!) I was having discussions with my friends at work about eating placenta.  What?  You don't have these conversations with your coworkers??  See, one of my CNAs (from Kenya, let's just throw in the culture mix, otherwise this might get even odder) wanted to eat my and another person's placentas after birth.  Only he wanted to do it all cannibal style.  Or he wanted our breast milk to treat eye infections...Now most, if not all, of these talks ended in all of us laughing but it got me to thinking, what is so great about the placenta that other cultures know and we don't?

I remember hearing a couple of years ago on the radio that there were websites that actually gave recipes on how to prepare and eat placenta.  At the time, I was thinking there is ABSOLUTELY no way I would ever do that!  Who in their right minds wants to eat placenta?  Seriously.

Fast-forward again to the time when I was pregnant.  I was talking to my sister and she was telling me about this fantastic blog that she reads, MODG, and how the author had her placenta encapsulated. ***side note, I absolutely love this blog and it makes me laugh out loud and someday I want to be besties with the author (no I am not a stalker!)***  My sister sent me a link to the specific entry about the placenta.  I read it (then proceeded to spend the next three days getting caught up on the MODG story) and then did some research on my own.

Consuming the placenta is supposed to decrease postpartum depression, aid in faster recovery, help your milk come in faster, and provide you with a TON of vitamins and minerals (think, you are consuming the organ that provided all of the nutrients to your baby).  It also does some other beneficial things, but those were my top reasons in my decision.

I discussed all of this with my husband and he was all for it as long as I actually took the pills because we had to pay to have this done.

I wanted my midwife's opinion also before I committed to anything and when I mentioned placental encapsulation to her she got super excited.  I mean "you have just won a million dollars" excited.  Turns out she is a mega-fan of the placenta.  She even gave me the card for a doula that provided encapsulation services.  I contacted the doula (who was extremely sweet and I recommend her to anyone in the Washington area!) and got everything arranged.  After this experience, if I was still living in WA with my next kiddo I would see about her doula services, she was so nice!

After I delivered my placenta, it was placed into a biohazard bag and then a container so that my husband could deliver the placenta to her the next morning.  We just had to keep it refrigerated (not frozen) until delivery.  She emailed me some pics of the prep work and I received my placenta capsules the very next morning.  I wish I could have observed the process, but I was kinda in the hospital...

My placenta was so big, the doula thought that Rowan was around 9 lbs (he was 7.5)

Kinda icky, I know, but at least it's healthy!

I got a ton of capsules, more than the average I guess.  The instructions were to take two capsules three times a day for the first two weeks postpartum.  I followed the directions and I think it made a difference.  Mood-wise, I was much more emotionally stable and less down compared to now (depression sucks, but that's another entry).  I did have to stop taking them for a few days because the instructions said to stop taking them temporarily if any kind of infection develops.  I guess that the placenta capsules can actually drive the infection further into the body making it harder to fight.  I had a UTI a few days after I got home (sheer hell, let me tell you!).  After that pain when away though, I started the pills again.

If there are leftover pills I guess they keep forever.  They can be used during times of "extreme emotional stress" or can be saved for menopause.  The B vitamins deactivate though if they are frozen.  It's recommended to keep them in a dark, cool, dry place (like my bedside table).  I actually have a lot left over.  I'm thinking about starting them again to see if they can improve the down feelings.

Do I recommend placenta encapsulation for you? Maybe.  I think they helped me, but then again, I have no other birth experience to compare it to.  Next time I give birth I am planning on doing it again.

I leave you with a couple of pics.  I documented the initial dose for my sister since she couldn't be there to observe.  Enjoy!

My first dose.  They were very "fragrant" when I opened the jar.

This is part of my umbilical cord preserved in the shape of a heart.  It turned out really cool!