Can I serve you a slice of hot, fresh bread!?
Oh man, today was absolutely DIVINE – all the fresh doughy bread we could eat! The cause: learning the ins and outs of customer service, slicing bread and serving customers.
We started with coffee and packaging and ended up in the test bakery for our slicing fun.
I got a “great job” ! [Even as a lefty!]
And then I ate a whole loaf of bread! Not literally, but sort of 
This was the best GH bread I have EVER had! So sweet, doughy and most especially – HOT!
Cheddar Garlic oozing with cheese –
Here I am role playing welcoming a customer. I imagine this will be easier in my own store, but I think I did well! It was fun.
We all ate so much bread there was no need to turn to our PB&J on grocery store bread sandwiches Matt and I packed for lunch.
We had 20 minutes to all go or a group walk before picking back up on store layout and design.
And there’s plenty of opportunities to eat vegetables later 
{ 133 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh my gosh that cheddar bread with garlic looks to die for! And I actually just finished a bag of sugar snap peas – so delicious.
How funny that they make you do role play! Mmmmm…all of that bread is making my mouth water, esp. the pics with the melty cheese!!!
Oh man – I wanted to just take a piece of that cheese bread off the computer screen and devour!!!!!
Those breads look absolutely incredible!!!
This sounds like such a fun experience so far. That first loaf of bread looks absolutely spectacular.
I have really enjoyed following your GH adventure! I also didn’t kow you were a lefty – my oldest daughter is a lefty and is proud of it!
so. jealous.
Echo the comments about your fantastic picture of the bread with the melty cheeese, looks super-delicious!
I have really enjoyed following your GH adventure! I also didn’t know you were a lefty – my oldest daughter is a lefty and is proud of it!
That bread looks mouth-watering.
An entire day filled with carbohydrates???? Sounds heavenly!
OMG, that cheddah garlic bread…
HOLY BREAD GET IN MY MOUTH! I’ll take a slice of the raisiny one and a bite of cookie. Thanks.
Warm bread sounds so comforting and delicious right about now! I’ve gotta get to our local GH sooooon!
sounds like a great day, Kath! Can’t wait until you have your own GH…that’ll be so exciting!
Ummm, yes, thank you–you can definitely serve me some of that!!
Yum- that bread looks so good! But GH’s oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that I spy in your picture are absolutely the best ever!
Yes, please serve me up some bread. It looks so good!!!!!!!!!
What an amazing experience you’ve had!
And your customers will all be very lucky people! Everything looks delish!
Wow! It all looks so amazingly yum! Look at that CRUST wrapping around a soft doughy inside….I need bread like that in my life!
This post made my mouth water!!
That cheddar and garlic bread has me lost for words!
Love that there’s an RP session to get you familiarized with being at the front of the store.
I bet it smelled amazing too. Nothing like fresh bread!
Like everyone else said, that cheesy garlic bread looks incredible. I’ll come down to Charlottesville when you open your store just for that! And yay lefties!!
I need to make some of that cheddar bread – STAT!
Warm bread from the oven … how divine. yummmmy
i want that cheddar bread RIGHT NOW! what a great job that you got to do that all morning!
How fun! And umm I want carbs –now!
Kath these photos are so good I can almost smell the bread!!! Looks like you’ve been having a great afternoon!
Kath you’re a natural! How will you ever contain yourself every day from all of the warm delicious breads?
Would you look at that cheese! It all looks delicious!
Oh my goodness, the GH bread looks wonderful! I would have been in heaven if I could taste all of that delicious bread!
I. love. this. post.!! BREAD HEAVEN! OMG! You are my idol
Can I echo Laurens comment?? I consider myself to have quite good self control/ moderation/ healthy attitude to food – but all that bread – i would go CRAZY!!! xox
I DID go crazy!!!!!!!
There is nothing better than warm, sweet bread. I could most likely live off of that.
OMG That bread looks amazingly yummy!
thankfully i just pulled some super fluffy and chewy oatmeal dinner rolls outta the oven…otherwise i would have major major bread envy!
love,
cathy b. @ brightbakes
I remember the first time I went into a Great Harvest (in Wayne, PA) they offered me bread – I was so confused? I said, “Oh I don’t know what I’m going to get yet” and they were so sweet! “Oh, this is just a sample!” I was speechless!
This is what I imagine Heaven will be like! Fresh bread everywhere! YUM!
I agree
there is always time for veggies later!
So.lucky!!!! Bread all day…how can you go wrong with that???
There is just nothing better in my opinion then hot fresh bread!!! Yummmm!
I will take any slice of bread you will share!
That is the best looking bread I have ever seen! Oozing cheese?! Who could ask for anything more?
NO FAIR posting all those mouth-watering photos of GH bread. I’m not talking to you right now. (Actually I can’t cause I gotta find my car keys and get to my local GH to buy lots of bread!)
It’s been fun watching your (and Matt’s) training at Great Harvest. Now, if someone would just open a Great Harvest near me. The closest one is in Oakland — 30 miles away!!!
Ahh that cheddar garlic bread looks divine!!! I’ll be in Nashville this weekend and I WILL be stopping by Great Harvest!!
YES PLEASE!!
I don’t live in Nashua but I do live in NH and I am thrilled that there’s a shop opening up there. My in laws live down the road so I can’t wait to stop by.
Mmm I love warm, doughy bread! When given doughy goodness, veggies take the backseat;)
There is almost nothing better than fresh warm bread straight out of the oven…..especially with a pat of butter. heaven!
DRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOLLL!!!!!!
I want a Great Harvest near me!!
I would have no control over eating the merchandise. In France bread was my weakness.
OMG that bread looks wonderful! Hard to pass up warm bread!
The bread looks AH-mazing!!!!!! We have a few GH here in Spokane, WA, thank goodness.
pretty sure the first picture says it all. ha
I’m quite jealous– I’d love me some fresh baked bread! There’s not GH in sunny Santa Cruz, CA sadly
I love bread! Hard to be gluten intolerant looking at these pictures.
This is so cool that you and Matt are opening your Great Harvest store and really just going for this dream. That is so inspiring!
My local Great Harvest does gluten-free bread once a week! Apparently, they sell out every week because of the high demand.
GH bread is seriously the most addicting thing in the world when it’s just out of the oven. Having worked at one before, cinnamon chip, cheddar garlic and white right out are my downfall. YUM!
You will be so awesome at customer service! At the GH in Columbia everyone is soooo nice and friendly. I love it!
and this is why i keep craving bread…weird, ever since you’ve been in montana i’ve been counting the seconds til i can walk down the road to great harvest!
that cheddar garlic bread is my favorite…
If that garlic cheese bread was a mail order item, I’d be pulling out my credit card now! Is the recipe proprietary or can you share?
Sorry – it’s all secret!
Delicious. I love that the Great Harvest here also sells at the farmer’s market, which makes it more convenient. However, not I don’t want to wait two more days for my GH bread! I think other franchises should give you some percentage for advertising GH so well!
Holy moly, now I really can’t wait!!!
Drooling at my desk…that cheesy garlic bread looks amazing!!
Mmmm I love fresh bread.
You are living my dream life… I’m just saying.
wow wow wow….I always read but dont comment but WOW that bread looks amazing!
Manoman I want a big ol’ hunk of GH! CAN’T wait until we get a GH here in C’ville!
Amazing bread pics, I was addicted to the smell of fresh bread while working at a grocery store. Love the role playing pics, what an experience.
Some of these pics should be on your local GH website when it’s up and running. Nothing worse than a lackluster website–hard to imagine yours will be less than great!
Oh my gosh. I have no words for the level of bread love I am feeling right now. No words.
Whoa whoa whoa… that bread with the cheddar-cheese oozing out??? I want to reach through the screen and grab some! So jealous!
Oh my goodness that cheddar garlic bread looks AH-MAH-ZING! I totally want some bread now.
You’re making me drool….
I need some bread!
Oh heavens, that oozing cheese bread has killed me! Want want want!
There are two options for me: learn to make delicious bread like this, or bust my butt over to the Great Harvest near me. I’ve never actually been there – they close too early for me to get there after work
This post literally made my mouth water. YUM! Great Harvest needs to come to NYC! (Yeah, yeah, I know it’s an amazing food/bakery city, but there’s nothing like Great Harvest bread.) Glad you’re having fun!
Oh man, that is what heaven must look like! There is nothing better than warm, fresh, doughy bread.
I literally almost drooled looking at all of those breads… they look AMAZING!
So jealous of all that bread, yum.
the bread bar is my favorite part of the GH experience! all stores should offer free samples.
I’m a lefty too!! The bread looks delicious, GH should come to Cali
The bread looks ah-mazing. Such doughy deliciousness.
I’m a lefty too!!! All of that bread looks amazing!!!! I’m having chili tonight and that cheddar bread would be the perfect accompaniment! So jealous!
mmm cheddar garlic bread is my favorite GH bread…except that I find myself unable to maintain any semblance of self control. The closest GH is 17 miles away, but I need to get my butt out there.
Wow that garlic cheddar bread looks divine! Did Great Harvest absorb Montana Mills, or are they related at all? We used to have a MM and it’s pretty much an identical set up. I used to stop in on my walks to school (back in the day) for free slices.
(oh and yeah Lefties! haha)
I’m pretty sure Montana Mills was a knock off of GH opened by a former employee and was bought by them in 2004 according to the website: http://www.montanamills.com/aboutus.cfm
Ok, well now I want to open a GH just so I can go to the training. The bread looks CRAZY good!!! I may be in the wrong career field!
I wish we had a Great Harvest in Arkansas! It looks soo yummy!
YUM!!!
lol
that is all…
Oh I am drooling through the computer screen for sure! That looks so good!
Ahh warm yeasty bread!!! Looks like you are having a doughball of fun! LOL!
Hi Kath! Long time reader, first time commenter
I actually went to a Great Harvest for a sandwich today after reading your blog for so long. When it was time to get my free taste (huge slice I might add), I was so excited and overwhelmed. I thought to myself: “Which names do I recognize from Kath??” I stopped the guy at cinnamon chip and boy did it not disappoint. I left there thinking to myself, I need to open up one of these too! I’m a believer!
Oh how fun!! You should have found the owners and told them KERF got you in the door
I don’t know how you survived…I have no self control around delicious fresh baked breads! I would have literally poped or had to be carried off in an ambulance. What a great working vacation!
I WANT that bread! I started salivating at the first picture. I am dreaming about that bread.
Question: Does Matt or the GH folks have any advice about baking with Red Fife flour? It’s a heritage wheat that I just bought, and I don’t want to mess up.
I don’t have any help…sorry!
I’ve never used that, so no advice there… sorry!
Ok, thanks anyway — just thought I’d check!
I ADORE great harvest bread!!! Discovered upon your recommendation, actually
The one closest to me shut down, so whenever I get a craving I have to make a pilgrimage to another. I only wish they were less than even bucks a loaf though…but maybe it’s a good thing so I’m limited to just one at a time 
I don’t see the cinnamon swirl bread in this post…but I certainly hope you will be purchasing that recipe for your store!
Yum! I am craving warm bread and soft butter n’ jam!
Oh my goodness that bread looks so delicious! I wish there were a store near me
Heaven. This must be what Heaven is like!
Looks like a lot of fun!
Dear lord, you can serve ME a slice of that bread! Looks divine, Kath!
All I can say is yum, yum, and more yum. It all looks SO good!!
Remind me to tell you on Saturday about my first time slicing the cheese that goes into the cheesy Great Harvest bread! Its a good story!
OK!
wow all that bread looks amazing! especially (what looked to be) the cinnamon raisin!!! and you’re so right about hot bread being the best…its so much softer and and flavorful in my opinion! aaahh you are going to love going into your store everyday and being surrounded by great smelling freshly mad bread!
So… now that I am STARVING, I am think I absolutely MUST go get some GH bread after I get off work tomorrow…
All those delicious carbs! YUM! And I love the color of that purple mug!
Can you ship GH bread to Okinawa?
Looks so good!!
Congratulations Kath, it looks like you guys are having a great time! How exciting.
I love your blog. Have you ever checked out this cookbook? I feel like it would be right up your alley: http://dc24fvsbmq1j3uegkjkmf-9t98.hop.clickbank.net/
oh my gosh all these bread pictures are driving me insane!!! you all need to open your doors in cville asap!!! I need some dough bread in my life!
Hi! I am a huge fan of Great Harvest but do not have one here in Cincinnati, OH. Used to visit Cleveland from time to time and would stock up at the Mentor location. Do you know if there are any future plans to put a store in the Cincinnati area? Good luck with all your plans for your new shop! Thanks!
Hi Kath, I was sent to check out your blog from my mom’s good friend, Mary Hobbs, I think y’all might be related? Anyways, I just wanted to say hello, and I look forward to following now!
Hey Evie! Mary is a good friend of my mother in law Karen! I’ve stayed at her country house too
I am SO hungry for lunch now! Lunch AKA bread and as much of it as I can find!
Those big ol’ sample slices are definitely the best part of Great Harvest. I have to restrain myself and my daughter from going in to get a slice just for the sample! My favorite breads are the Finnish Pulla and the spinach feta. Yum. I want to go now!
Love, love, LOVE Great Harvest! There’s only one in Atlanta, but luckily my boyfriend works right by there, so I get it often. You’re not alone…I could easily eat an entire loaf myself!
Thanks for the post. Now I’m hungry…
mylovelysurroundings.blogspot.com
mmm the bread looks good.
Oh man! I wish we had a GH in New Orleans area; you make me crave some every time I see it even though I’ve never had it before.
oh GEEZ! The raisin bread and the cheese bread look OUT OF THIS WORLD… now all i want is some fresh, hot, warm crusty bread!!!
How far are you from the Charlotte Airport? I find myself there a lot lately going, damn, I wish I had time to see Kath! lol
oh wow, just realized you are in Charlottes-VILLE, VA!
HAH nevermind that then. But now I want to fly to VA for this bread. Best of Luck with your new business.