The founders of Tropical
Traditions are Brian and Marianita Shilhavy.
Brian W. Shilhavy, BA, MA
Brian earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in
Bible/Greek from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago,
and his Master of Arts degree in linguistics from
Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. He is
currently the CEO of Tropical Traditions, Inc.
Marianita Jader Shilhavy, BS, CND (Certified
Nutritionist/Dietician in the Philippines) earned
her bachelor of science degree in nutrition in
Manila. Understanding the nutrition of Filipino
foods, Marianita worked for over eight years as a
hospital dietician and nutritional counselor in the
Philippines.
In 1998 Brian and
Marianita returned to the Philippines with their
three children and renovated Marianita's old family
farmhouse. By this time the coconut industry was
severely depressed due to the negative U.S.
campaigns against tropical oils in the 1980s and
1990s. Coconut farmers could no longer support their
families on the income generated from harvesting
coconuts.
How We Discovered Virgin
Coconut Oil
When I first read
about the wonderful benefits of coconut oil,
I asked my wife Marianita, who grew up on a
coconut plantation in the Philippines, if
there was a more natural way to extract the
oil from the coconut, so that we didn’t have
to buy the refined coconut oils found in all
the stores in the Philippines. She said
there was a method the older generation used
to extract the oil by grating the fresh
coconut, extracting the coconut milk, and
then letting the coconut milk stand in a
covered container for about 24 hours. After
about 24 hours, the oil naturally separates
from the water producing a crystal clear oil
that retains the full scent and taste of
coconuts. So we started making our coconut
oil that way and using it for our cooking
needs with our three children. We couldn’t
believe how wonderful it tasted, and how
great we felt. We had been living on Mt.
Banahaw in the Philippines for almost two
years by that time, and in the year 2000
telephone service was provided to our rural
farming community, allowing me to put up a
website about our Philippine Herbs. I
decided to also put our Virgin Coconut Oil
up on the website, not really expecting
people to order it because it was a bit
expensive since we had to hire people to
make the oil, and shipping cost a lot
because of the weight. We were so surprised
when people started ordering, and then
re-ordering it because they felt so great
after using it! They told us there was no
other coconut oil like it on the market.
(See a sample of
testimonies.)
Before long we had
businesses contacting us asking how to order
it in bulk. So we discussed how we could
mass produce this kind of oil, and almost
abandoned the product because we didn’t want
to lose the traditional way of making it. In
the end, we decided to just keep making it
the same way, by having others in our
coconut community also make the oil the
traditional way. Many of our producers are
in areas so remote, that if they did not use
their coconuts to produce Virgin Coconut oil
for us, no one would buy their coconuts
because it would cost too much to transport
them to manufacturing plants. In these
areas, the coconuts generally just fell to
the ground unused until we started training
people to make our Virgin Coconut Oil. We
were the first ones to export Virgin Coconut
Oil from the Philippines to the US market.
The success overwhelmed us.
Today, more than 6
years later, there are other companies now
selling coconut oil again in the US, most of
them mass-produced by machines. But we are
committed to time-honored traditional
practices that have produced healthy coconut
oil for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
Our producers have learned a lot of things
over the years, since most of them have been
producing this oil for over 6 years now.
They have learned how to pick out the best
coconuts from each harvest that produce the
best quality oil, for example.
Their most recent discovery came in 2007
when certain groups in rural areas had
problems with water sources. Water is needed
to make the coconut milk from which the oil
is extracted. Using true Filipino ingenuity,
they started collecting and using the pure
nutritious coconut water from inside the
organic coconuts instead. They noticed that
the water separated from the oil much
quicker, and that the end result was a
higher quality and better tasting Virgin
Coconut Oil.
Independent laboratory analysis shows
this to be one of the highest quality
coconut oils on the market, having the
highest levels
of antioxidants.
This enhanced Virgin Coconut Oil is now in
the US market under the Tropical Traditions
Gold Label brand. It meets our
strictest standards to earn this
designation. Today when you buy Tropical
Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil,
you are buying the highest quality coconut
oil we have to offer, and it is still made
by hand and benefiting families in the rural
areas of the Philippines where the coconuts
grow.
Later, when our family
was forced to leave the Philippines, we had to adapt
our eating and lifestyle from living in a rural
agricultural area of the Philippines, where we had
access to a local public market and fresh farm goods
produced in our community and the areas surrounding
it, to buying food on the shelves of stores where we
had little or no knowledge of those who produced the
food. As we settled back into life in the United
States, I sought out healthy food sources that I
felt we could trust to meet the nutritional and
health needs of our family.
Finding good food sources and
healthy products is an ongoing endeavor, and the
products sold through Tropical Traditions are the
products I have trusted to meet the needs of my own
family. I won't sell you products that I won't use
personally or give to my own children. With meats
and dairy products, it is not enough to simply be
"organic." We believe that animals raised on pasture
are preferable to animals in feed lots eating
organic grains and organic soy, and so we give
preference to animals raised on grass and sunshine,
and farmers practicing sustainable agriculture.
We have a strong commitment to
family farming and organic standards. But the
organic label is not enough for us. We research and
find out where the products are produced, and how
they are produced. We find that some organic
standards too loose for our trust, so we look beyond
what is claimed on a label. We find out as much as
possible about those who provide the products. And
if a certain quality of product does not exist, we
will work with others to produce that product and
offer it to our consumers. We did that with Virgin
Coconut Oil in the Philippines, and we are working
on several other products both here in the US and
outside the US that we plan to introduce to you
soon.
One of those is our
Pastured Poultry chickens raised on Cocofeed.
When we began looking for a good source of chicken
raised on pasture, we found that all the organic
chickens available to us were fed a high
concentration of soybeans, and this concerned us. So
after two years of research, we finally came up with
an organic feed that was soy-free and utilized the
coconut pulp that was left over after the coconut
oil was extracted from it. In May 2006 we introduced
these chickens to our customers.
We want you to feel safe when
shopping in our online store, so we have a
commitment to you to not sell anything that is
harmful to the best of our knowledge. All of our
foods are either certified organic or meet quality
standards that are equal to or higher than organic
certification. This is quite different from most
health food stores, where you have to be "on your
guard" as most of them offer conventional products
right alongside organic products, because they want
to offer a full selection of products to compete
with regular grocery stores. We would rather offer
fewer products, and stick to our high standards, so
that you can feel safe when shopping here.
Fats and Oils
We believe strongly that there
is much confusion in the area of fats and oils in
the US today. We believe that there is too much soy
in the American diet (soy was not a major component
of our diet prior to World War II), so we do our
best to make sure that soy is not an ingredient in
any of the products that we sell (other than
fermented soy sauce as a seasoning). We also believe
that there are too many polyunsaturated refined oils
in the American diet, and as a result an
overabundance of the Omega 6 fatty acids in our food
today. We believe the traditional fats and oils that
have been consumed in traditional cultures for
hundreds if not thousands of years are still the
healthiest fats and oils available to us today,
including coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil, sesame
oil, and butter from the milk of pastured animals.
What's Ahead?
When Abraham Lincoln served as president of the
United States in 1862, about 48 percent of the people
living in the U.S. were farmers. Today, that figure
is less than 1%. Along with the age of
industrialization and technology we have, by and
large, lost many of our community family farms and,
with that loss, also the loss of many traditional
farming skills. Few would argue that our food
sources here in the U.S. have suffered as a result,
as a consumer-driven economy seeks to support its
lifestyle of ease and comfort with cheap foods
produced by fewer people providing the labor back on
the farms.
But there are new market trends and demands from
consumers who are now placing greater value on
traditional skills, and healthier food produced "the
old fashioned way." The 21st century sees
a whole generation of "baby boomers" heading into
their senior years, with complex health problems
that did not plague their parents' and grandparents'
generations, in spite of all the "medical
advances" the 21st century brings us.
Traditional ways of producing food are coming back
into the spotlight, as some are questioning whether
those responsible for filling the shelves of our
grocery stores and supermarkets truly have our best
interest in mind, or represent our core values.
Tropical Traditions is
constantly adding more products to offer its
customers as we move forward and find people
producing products that meet our high standards. We
are already working with farmers to be able to drop
ship products directly to your home from the farm.
In time, we will also setup regional centers where
you can pick up local food produced close to your
community. In early 2006 we launched our
Healthy Buyer's Club
that allows individuals and families to purchase
bulk retail products for a significant savings. Join
us today as we seek to restore traditional ways of
producing healthy food and healthy products!
Sincerely,
Brian & Marianita Shilhavy
Founders
Tropical Traditions, Inc. Peace With
God
