05/30/2024
One of my greatest memories as a child was waking up at 6am to the smell of coffee. My dad always brewed a pot just before the sun rose. He’d sit in his favorite chair with a lamp, a notebook, and his bible or some other book that inspired him to know God on a deeper level. I remember climbing into his lap, snuggling up while he sipped his coffee. Occasionally I’d take a sip of the bitter Maxwell House blend, eventually getting my own cup loaded with cream and sugar. Then we would start the day.
In the evenings my brothers and I would climb into bed and dad would sing us a special song.
Thank you thank you Lord above for smiling down on me
I’m richer now than any man has any right to be
Health and love and happiness sweetens my coffee
The richest man in all creation surely in these me.
I’ve got a brown eyed wife, two sons and a little girl
Two downright special boys, Eric and Levi
I’ve got the Lord above and good friends who love me
I’m the richest man in the world.
As I grew older I learned to understand that these moments were where our family was financially at our poorest, yet God provided everything that we needed. In 2006, my parents took their passions and life experiences to create a new business model. My parents took their passion and life experience of dairy farming, Ministry, parenting, and curious hope to create Downsize Farm. The state just opened the opportunity for sheltered workshops to be privatized, and since my brothers’ birth my family yearned for more for their kids than simply manufacturing widgets. They created a place that followed the 4-H learning by doing model, where people with disabilities could dare to try the work many of us take for granted.
I watched my parents continue to grow their little business from the ground up. Feeling a similar calling to help people with disabilities, I took my third-grade goal into college to begin studying to be a teacher. In my music education studies I got in a classroom of 6-year-olds banging on drums and knew immediately that was not what I would do for the rest of my life. After 3 major switches I finally landed on business. When my last school year required me to produce a business plan, I thought about my parents. They took their passions and life calling to create something meaningful. I remembered those mornings with my dad taking sips of his coffee, and I knew a coffee shop could be the catalyst for opportunity. So I wrote the business plan for the Spotted Cow Coffeehouse. A place where people with disabilities could make and serve coffee to create an inclusive workplace; its mission, to be the spot in the community that contributes to opportunity.
As I wrote my business plan, Downsize Farm looked to expand. They found a building to cultivate a vocational program for adults with disabilities, with the goal to help adults with disabilities gain job skills to achieve community employment. With a continued push to avoid segregation, the business looked to create a reverse integration model that would invite the community to integrate with our clients with disabilities. A coffee shop was the perfect partner to Downsize Farm’s new venture. My parents blessed me with helping my business plan become a reality, and May 31st, 2014 the Spotted Cow Coffeehouse opened its doors. (I converted the family’s palette to far better coffee than the maxwell house of the 90s).
10 years have come and gone. In the past year, we opened and closed our second location the Spotted Owl. We were humbled to barter our location with Dees Brew Coffee Trailer and it was such a refreshing feeling to see their young owners. There was a nostalgia in seeing their eagerness to thrive that has been jaded in me over the past decade. Roller coasters in meeting the needs of zoning, the city, customers and staff. Multiple moments of wanting to quit. Multiple moments of people who believed in The Spotted Cow and wanted it to continue.
In 2016 I began working full-time for Downsize Farm as Business Development Director, (while working with a manager to keep The Spotted Cow mission alive). In my mid-twenties I certainly remembered thinking that I knew everything about business. I had a lot of great (so I thought) ideas for how to make the farm function better. Things to do. People to hire. Job Descriptions. Processes. Checklists galore. Amidst my piousness to the mission, I began to recognize a distinct difference in my leadership of Downsize Farm versus the Spotted Cow. I would make much more risky business decisions for Downsize Farm than I was willing to make with the coffee shop. Why? My dad. I knew that if I failed within my realm of Downsize Farm, my dad was there to rescue the prodigal daughter. The Spotted Cow’s failures completely rested upon my shoulders. That glimpse stuck with me for years as I pushed and prodded my dad to turn over the family business. In August of 2020, my parents celebrated 50 years of marriage and they retired from Downsize Farm in celebration.
I would talk often with my parents about business after retirement, but my parents had such a peace in relinquishing Downsize Farm. There was a transition in which I had to recognize that in order to run both businesses, I would need to channel that dependence on my dad to that of my heavenly father. Since 2020, we’ve led 2 businesses through a pandemic. I watched my parents grow further from the business and into freedom, finding new ways to cultivate the community and make impact in others. Just as a feeling of relief entered the room, the trials began.
July 2023- My baby brother Eric passed away unexpectedly. September 2023- We closed the Spotted Owl Coffee Bar. My husband and I experienced secondary infertility and recurrent pregnancy loss. Feb 2024- my dad passed away unexpectedly. Recently a trial of this type was framed in a new picture for me. We stand in front of our friends, family, and community. Their Jury eyes gaze in consideration as to whether or not you should survive. Do I deserve loss? Did I prepare enough for the storm? What if I fail? What is the verdict for her? Within the tumult I hum in my mind:
Thank you thank you Lord above for smiling down on me
I’m richer now than any girl has any right to be
Health and love and happiness sweetens my coffee
The richest girl in all creation surely in these me.
The richness of life isn’t in the desires and wants of the world. It’s in recognizing that a heart that’s been broken is a heart that is loved- that the people close to you matter. It’s recognizing that the love you feel for those you’ve lost can be reciprocated within you. You Matter. The richness of life is most sweet when you’re sharing with the world the gifts you’ve been given within the borrowed time we’ve been graced with.
We celebrate 10 years of Spotted Cow Coffeehouse, a spot in the community that contributes to opportunity. I am humbled daily by employees, clients and customers who continue to invest in the belief that what we do here matters. I find joy in smiles that fuel the adventure. I find thankfulness in a God whose faithfulness ensures the adventure continues.
Oh The Adventure Continues, Life has only begun
Chapters still to be written and songs to be sung
What started with Love and Freedom pursued
Stands a verdict of Joy, glorious and good
So all that Life offers, both future and past
Continues to Hope in the Adventure that lasts!
-Bob Custer
