Our Makers
Bowls that build a better world
A question we are sometimes asked is why our bowls are more expensive than some of the national chain stores:
- Our coconut bowls are larger, thicker, smoother and polished with coconut oil. (making them much less likely to crack and split)
- We don't use any plastic packaging from the coconut farm in Vietnam to your home in Australia or New Zealand.
- We let our crafts-people set the price of our bowls so they can live more comfortably and give their children a better education. (they are mostly rural village people)
- We donate 1% of all our sales to reforestation and ocean non-for-profits here in Australia.
It is our responsibility is to make sure we have a positive impact on people and the planet - paying a few extra dollars here makes a world of difference over there!
Social Sustainability
Most of our coconut products come from the Coconut Kingdom located in the Ben Tre Province of Vietnam. Ben Tre has an extensive network of rivers and favourable soil conditions for the growth of coconut trees and the best quality coconuts.
We purchase the otherwise discarded coconut shells from local farms and use them to make everything, from coconut bowls and cups to household utensils.
All our coconut products are made in the same villages as the farms providing income and prosperity to local craftspeople.
Creating Healthy Work Spaces
Like many of you, we share our customer’s concerns about working conditions abroad, and we work to make sure that the suppliers we choose to partner with provide ethical treatment to their employees and the environment.
We visit our partners yearly, and have our products independently tested to ensure that that they comply with all applicable safety standards and health standards including the Vegan Australia certification.
Making Coconut Bowls & Cups
We buy coconut shells from growers and farmers at local markets and look for a very particular shape and size that is suitable to making bowls. For a coconut shell to be hard enough to use as a bowl, the coconuts must be mature and strong.
Local craftsmen then cut, clean and sand the coconut shells turning them into beautiful bowls that you can eat from. Finally we finish them in an organic coconut oil polish which brings out the colour and protects them for a long life in your kitchen.
There are very few electric driven tools used with most of the work being done by hand.
Making Cutlery & Utensils
Coconut wood is gathered from 60 to 70 year-old trees which no longer yield fruit. The tree is selected by an experienced person who can gauge the texture of the wood just by looking at the tree.
The design is sketched on paper with measurement details and then placed in the turning machine and roughly cut to shape. They are then sanded, cleaned and polished using coconut oil for a smooth finish making them the perfect addition to your coconut bowl!
The coconut wood cutlery matches our coconut bowls and is a great eco-friendly replacement for plastic cutlery.
Making Bamboo Cups
Mature bamboo lengths are cut and dried in the sun to remove any moisture.
The bamboo is then cut into smaller pieces by hand just below a natural 'notch' which creates a natural base. Next is sanding... a lot of sanding to remove any hard edges and create a smooth finish on the outside.
Sanding the inside is especially hard and we have created custom tools to get a quality result. Finally a layer of natural wax is applied in two coats to seal and protect the bamboo cup for a long life in your home.
Sustainable Soy Wax
The major issue regarding the eco-friendliness of soy wax lies not in the soy wax itself, but in the soybeans that are the source of the soy wax.
It is crucially important that it is not only our organisation which has a policy on environmental sustainability, but that it filters up the supply chain to the farmers and the producers of our raw materials.
We have chosen to partner with All Seasons Wax Co who have carefully selected suppliers which have environmental policies that align with ours.
Soybeans are sourced from one of the most progressive, high profile agricultural producers in Brazil. We can guarantee, when you buy any All Seasons Wax product you can be sure that any product utilising soy wax has been sourced from a registered and certified organisation.