Inspiring Conversations with Elizabeth Durham of Sweet Elizabeth’s Organics

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Durham. 

Hi Elizabeth, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In January of 2014, my health was poor and I was told to go gluten-free, later I found out that I have Celiac Disease. At the time, my family and I were living in Tampa, FL and I owned an organic produce co-op where I would sell my homemade bread. I was a baker and had over 100 pounds of flour in the freezer. To take my health back, I ended up removing any trace of gluten-containing products from our home. Gluten-free baking was so different than any baking I had done so I stopped baking for an entire year.

A simple birthday request from my 9-year-old daughter changed the trajectory of my life. She requested a coffee cake. I didn’t even know she knew what a coffee cake was. I tried to persuade her to choose something I knew I could successfully make. Sophia was adamant about her birthday request for a coffee cake, so I obliged under one condition, no matter how it turned out it still needed to be eaten.

I’ll never forget the feel of that hot pan coming through the oven mitt, the comforting aroma of sweet apples and spicy cinnamon, and the look of that gorgeous Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake as I pulled it out of the oven. This coffee cake had complex flavor, just the right texture, and very few ingredients with most of them being nutritious. I was so excited to have created a healthier version of coffee cake that was free from top allergens.

I had begun sharing my cooking skills through cooking classes in the area and I couldn’t wait to share this Coffee Cake recipe at my next cooking class. That’s when the lightbulb went off, “nobody wants your recipe, Elizabeth, they just want you to make it for them.”

On January 2, 2017, Sweet Elizabeth’s Organics was born.

I quickly developed six of our now seven baking mixes and started selling them at farmers’ markets. In June of 2017, we moved from Florida to Colorado. My mixes became a hit, and by January of 2018, I opened the door to my first all organic, gluten-free, allergy-friendly bakery in Old Colorado City. It was a 300 square foot office that my husband, Scott, and I turned into the coziest, most welcoming haven of sweet goodness. It was a place where I could love upon my guests and start cultivating the Sweet Elizabeth’s community. There have been LOTS of changes and challenges since that opening day.

By the beginning of 2018 Sweet Elizabeth’s was thriving by most accounts! We had created a concept that was both desperately needed, and not readily available. We understood our customers and their needs and our business was exploding because of it. Unfortunately, without the right systems in place, this kind of growth in such a short time came at a great personal cost. My health was declining due to the constant stress of running a business and the physical work of baking. And my family was suffering.

With Scott and I, both working at the bakery full-time (as in 60+ hour weeks) quality family time was rare, and our 5 kids felt disconnected and distant. They retreated to their separate electronics and started talking about how much they missed their family and friends in Florida (where they had grown up). So, we made a very difficult choice to leave the business that we had built from the ground up, and attempt to replicate the success back in Florida. The thought of leaving was devastating, but our kids always come first and this felt like the right move for them.

It wasn’t until a heart-breaking conversation with a deeply supportive customer/friend that I realized I couldn’t walk away from this Colorado Springs community. We were more than just a bakery; we were a safe place for them to find food and baked goods to feed their families. It’s so difficult to find allergen-friendly food and we couldn’t leave these supporters who kept us going from day one at the farmer’s markets. So, we kept our bakery in Colorado Springs and opened the Florida location at the beginning of December 2019 and as you know, the next chapter of our story (and that of so many small businesses of the world) is a tragic one…

The opening of the Florida location had started well. There was a huge need in both spots and we had so much support! But we had invested most of our savings to make it all happen, and when C*v*d hit it was just so crushing.

It was such a confusing time. No one knew what was going on, and we saw the state-to-state discrepancies so clearly during this time. I had been traveling back and forth between Florida and Colorado, and Colorado had shut down much earlier. We went to a take-out model immediately, but it just wasn’t enough. We couldn’t possibly keep up with paying rent, purchasing supplies, twelve employees and all the other costs with our bakery shut down to walk-in customers (literally overnight).

During the early stages, there was no assistance in place and we had no idea how long any of this would last. We weren’t even able to travel so we were in Florida, trying to figure out how to sustain a Colorado business that we couldn’t even come out and visit. We were faced with an impossible choice: stay open and go deep into debt with no idea what the future would hold, or shut down our flagship bakery without even getting to say goodbye.

Our hearts were broken, but we knew what we had to do. Our wonderful staff packed up a pod with all of the equipment from the Colorado bakery and shipped it to us. Opening that pod was such a moment of grief for me, I just fell to the ground and cried. Everything I had built and worked so hard for was gone, and the pieces were just sitting there packed in a box. We weren’t established enough to maintain much of our new customer base when the shutdown happened in Florida, and without staff, it was just Scott and I doing everything we could to keep Sweet Elizabeth’s afloat.

At this point, my dietitian told me that I was in adrenal fatigue from the constant stress and I had to make some drastic changes to preserve my health. So, we closed the brand-new Florida location and moved all of the equipment into our garage.

I knew in my heart that Sweet Elizabeth’s wasn’t done. Scott and I converted our spare bedroom to a bakery and focused on wholesale accounts to make ends meet, but this felt like a rock bottom moment for us. My vision of Sweet Elizabeth’s has always been a thriving community! It’s never been about just baking. It’s about being part of our customers’ lives and memories. About providing healthy, nourishing food for their families.

Shortly after this low moment, I began to pick the pieces back up and start the healing process. I did so much personal work and eventually found a small business grant to apply for. We were awarded a $33,000 grant through the SBA’s Restaurant Revitalization Fund (a life-changing amount for a small business like ours!). This money was enough to allow us to rebuild. And with the money came an opportunity to re-evaluate where we wanted to rebuild.

When we sat and listened to our hearts, the answer became so clear: Colorado Springs is home. These are the kind, caring, generous humans who helped us grow from a farmer’s market booth to a bakery, and then a bigger bakery and cafe! They are the beautiful people who rallied around their small businesses so fiercely through the pandemic. There was no other place we could see ourselves.

This decision to come back felt crazy. I can’t think of a better word for it. It felt so scary to come back after such a wild series of events. But at the end of the day, we just knew we weren’t where we needed to be. We decided to trust our intuition and go back to the place that felt like HOME.

In another ridiculous turn of events, our $33,000 grant was taken back from us (the same day our home was sold in Florida). After the SBA lost a lawsuit, the funding which was awarded to minority, veteran, and women-owned businesses had been withdrawn from thousands of small businesses like ours.

At this point, we were already committed! We decided to trust that we’re on the right path so we pack up our house in a torrential downpour… our house flooded, the sale fell through, and we missed out on the house we were planning to buy in Colorado. Long story short, we ended up in an RV we borrowed from Scott’s parents and spent a month and a half living in it with our 5 kids, 3 cats, and a dog! Haha, we can laugh now, because it’s over. 😉

It can be so hard to trust your intuition and learn how to believe in your own choices…especially in the middle of these kinds of extreme challenges. But now that we’re settling back in, it’s so clear to me that we made the right choice!

Our old bakery/cafe space has been available since we left and we were able to negotiate some amazing upgrades to the space and sign a 5-year lease (we’re not moving anything for a LONG time, friends!). We will be re-opening in Colorado Springs in the next few weeks.

Sweet Elizabeth’s is more than mixes and a bakery. We are a family-run business, where Scott, I, and our children work side by side. We only make food that we would eat ourselves. We understand food allergies, intolerances, autoimmune diseases, and healthier lifestyle choices. We “get it.”

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The obstacles we have faced have provided us an opportunity to learn and grow in a way that can only provide wisdom through experience. With the re-opening quickly approaching, we’re able to intentionally plan out each detail of remodeling, decor, layout, menu, and every other aspect that sometimes gets looked over when we’re in a hurry.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Sweet Elizabeth’s Organics?
It is my intimate knowledge of what it is like to live each day with an autoimmune disease and feeling like you are an outsider looking in on your own life that led me to create Sweet Elizabeth’s Organics.

We are the only organic, gluten-free, top 8 allergen-free (except coconut) and vegan bakery and cafe in Colorado Springs. We are uncompromising in our promise to provide high-quality, nutritious cafe items, baked goods, and baking mixes.

We like being in the kitchen but don’t want to spend all of our time there, that’s why we created our full line of baking mixes you can order online, ship to yourself or a friend, or grab in-store. Our baking mixes bring simplicity to the often-frustrating task of gluten-free & allergy-friendly baking.

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I wish I would’ve sought out a mentor early on. I was one of those people who thought I could do it on my own, that was one of those great lessons I had to learn the hard way. What’s working well for me now is surrounding myself with people who are geniuses in areas that I am not. It’s important to stay in your area of genius and dabble in your zone of excellence. Your area of genius is something that you were distinctly created for and helps you live a more authentic life.

Contact Info:

• Email: info@sweetelizabethsorganics.com
• Website: www.SweetElizabethsOrganics.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/sweetelizabethsorganics
• Facebook: facebook.com/sweetelizabethsorganics

Image Credits:
GrubFreak