Shanisty Ireland, Home Chef, Foodie & Lifestyle Influencer

The guest on the RNJ Morning Program talks about the importance of being environmentally conscious in food preparation, shipping, storing, and serving. They discuss the challenges faced by farmers due to development and overpopulation. They emphasize the need to reduce waste, compost food scraps, switch to electric equipment, and use reusable water bottles. Teaching the next generation about sustainability is also important. The guest recommends Salula Tostones, a brand that sources from family farmers and reduces food waste. They share a recipe for garlic guacamole and provide information on where to find Salula products. My guest, who's joining me now at the RNJ Morning Program, is here to talk about environmentally conscious things that we can do when it comes to preparing food, shipping food, storing food, serving food. You know, there's been such a push for environmental consciousness and sustainability nowadays. It's something that we need to take a little bit more seriously. And my guest, who's joining me here now at the RNJ Morning Program, yep, she's back, home chef, foodie, lifestyle influencer, and rapidly becoming a regular on the RNJ Morning Program. Do you want to move to Jersey at some point, Shanesty? Would you like to maybe live here and become a regular on the program at this pace? I mean, we'll see. I mean, I'm also bringing the baggage with me. You know, I've got the five kids and the husband. Oh, well, there you go. Oh, good. Why not? Good, good. We're a very family-friendly state, of course, as you know. That's great. Thanks for joining me here today. And obviously, Shanesty, this is something a little bit more in your wheelhouse than mine. You're so involved with the food industry and just what happens in food preparation and things like that. Is this something that we need to be concerned about? You know, you hear about harvesting, and farming faces challenges, and sustainability always enters into the conversation. This is something that we need to take rather seriously, I guess, going forward to be able to produce quality, healthy food for everybody. Absolutely. And that's why, you know, every September is the Environmental Awareness Month. It's where these organizations around the nation kind of come together with one goal to reduce, you know, to make things more sustainable. And it's no surprise. I mean, I think you guys just mentioned you're in a heat advisory as well. We've had kind of the hottest years in history that have been recorded in the last decade. So it's really no surprise that something is going on with our environment, whether you believe in it or not. So just being aware of that and trying to do the things we can do at home will really leave a footprint and hopefully move in that direction of getting our environment back on pace. Yeah, and there's no question, Shanna, Steve, that the demands on commercial farmers, we see it here in New Jersey. I mean, we're not the biggest state. We, in fact, happen to be the most densely populated state in the entire country. We rely so much on our farmers to be able to feed so many different families. And it seems like farmers are asked to do more with less property, with less farmland, because of development and other things, other factors that are working, unfortunately, against farmers here in New Jersey and around our country. And I'm sure you keep an eye on this as well. The challenges are there to be able to put out the same, if not more, food each year during your harvest season and be able to feed more people while doing it on a smaller footprint. That's another concern that I think those who produce food for the masses are facing. Yeah, and a lot of that comes to, of course, overpopulation. And more and more trees are being cut down. Every single day, 27,000 trees are cut down to even just create toilet paper, believe it or not. So I'm not saying run out and stop using toilet paper, but being more conscious of that. I mean, especially even at home with us, with our kids. You're going to laugh, but we have toilet paper lessons. You don't need to use the entire roll whenever you're going to the bathroom. So just trying to do those things at home, trying to teach your children. If you have the availability to compost, watermelon signs, coffee grinds, eggshells, saving those food scraps to help your garden grow, perhaps even switching to electric. We've recently switched to an electric mower or grass, trying to do little things like that wherever you can. And then as simple as using a reusable water bottle. It sounds very easy and it's not complex at all, but using the reusable water bottles, sending those off to school with your kids, little things like that can really go a long way. Maybe not the way I would have hoped you would have introduced your children into the conversation, Shannesty, but I did want to ask you, you do obviously as a mom, you want to make sure that you leave a planet for your kids that's better than the one that you and I are living off of now. It's about leaving things in better shape for the next generation so that they can enjoy it and carry that forward. And that's what this whole conversation regarding environmental responsibility and sustainability is all about. And I'm glad that the conversation globally is elevating. I think that's an important thing to have. Yeah, absolutely. And I will say, at least in our area, I'm sure in Jersey as well, the schools are doing a really great job of this as well. I mean, my kids are coming home and telling me, they know what a carbon footprint is and they're in first grade. And that is really all we can do beyond, of course, the little things such as switching to electric or composting our watermelon grinds or whatever it may be. But teaching the next generation, that in my opinion is the very best thing we can do. And another thing we can do is start teaching them about environmentally friendly brands that we can start buying and supporting as opposed to the brands that maybe you and I grew up on. Yeah, it seems like people more and more, Shanisty, are seeking out these specific brands that have a similar environmental conscience than the consumer has. And I think that's an important conversation to have as well. My guest is Shanisty Ireland, home chef, foodie, lifestyle influencer. We're having a kind of a serious talk today. This is about environmentally consciousness of food preparation and how it is impacted by things like climate change, reduced footprints for farmers and things like that that are facing challenges. You know, I can't let you leave without sharing some kind of recipe. And you heard how hot it's gonna be here in New Jersey this week. Anything you want us to consider today? Yeah, so one brand, we had mentioned briefly the brands, but one brand I do wanna talk about is Salula Tostones. They make really delicious plantain crisps. They actually source from family farmers in Central and South America. And they are very, very conscious of reducing food waste. They're making these plantains and they do not waste a scrap of it. They use the entire thing. And so the Salula actually has a really delicious garlicky guacamole recipe. I love guacamole. I actually made this over the weekend for Labor Day. Really simple, but you're just gonna be using avocados, a little bit of diced tomato, of course, cilantro, jalapeno pepper. Of course, you can omit that if somebody doesn't like the spice. I always use it in mine. Juice of a lime, salt. But then the key is using a tremendous amount of garlic. I'm talking four large garlic cloves, unpeeled, crushed in there. Really splendid and delicious. And in my opinion, there's nothing better than fresh guacamole. It's just so good. And it pairs really wonderful with the Salula plantain crisp. Yeah, guacamole, I'm definitely into it, Shanesty. No doubt about it. Where can we get some more information about the Tostones and where can we find you on social media? Yeah, you can go to enjoysalula.com and Salula is spelled S-O-L-U-L-A. And personally, I just love saying that word, Salula. It just kind of rolls off the tongue. And me, of course, you can find me on Instagram at Shanesty Ireland. Excellent. Shanesty Ireland, thank you for rejoining me here today at the Orange Day Morning Program. Something tells me that we'll talk again very soon and I look forward to that, our next conversation. Great. Have a good one.