Fresh Bread Is Heating Up

Great Harvest bakery opens doors

TEMPE (Wednesday, January 04, 2006) - Geoff Adams gets to work at 3:30 in the morning to start baking bread, cookies, muffins and scones.

He's the general manager of a new bakery in Tempe, the Great Harvest Bread Co. that just opened on the northwestern corner of Warner Road and McClintock Drive.

The flour, which is milled right there, is from wheat imported from Montana. The mill is behind a big glass window, so customers can watch, usually between 6 and 9 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Tours for children will begin this month. advertisement




The bakery's breads include garlic cheddar, honey whole wheat, high fiber, whole wheat cinnamon chip, pumpkin chocolate chip, cranberry orange, cracked pepper Parmesan and white chocolate cherry swirl. They contain no preservatives and no trans fat.

"You literally can't get any fresher than this," Adams said.

Even white bread is sold, but the flour is unbleached. Unsold food is donated to St. Mary's Food Bank.

"We send them all our products that don't sell, twice a week, so it's nice and fresh," said Bill Holmes, a co-owner of the bakery with his wife, Carolyn, and Adams, her son.

The bakery is the only Great Harvest in Arizona, and people in Tucson call, asking for the bread.

"Unfortunately, it costs them nearly $20 in shipping," Adams said.

The store sells organic coffee under the brand Equal Exchange Fair Trade.

"Our supplier has a direct relationship with farmers in South America and is part of a democratic co-op down there," Adams said. The farmers are guaranteed a minimum price.

Bill Holmes, a former Methodist minister and an ex-administrator at Michigan's largest community college, and Carolyn, a market researcher, moved from Ann Arbor to metro Phoenix in 2002. Adams soon followed and began teaching science to junior high schoolers in a Native American community.

One night Carolyn was complaining to Bill that she couldn't find good bread. They had been Great Harvest customers in Ann Arbor.

Suddenly, she posed the idea of opening a Great Harvest.

"Five minutes later, she was on the Internet figuring how to get it done," Adams said. "They called me the next day and said, 'Do you want to open a Great Harvest?' I didn't think twice."

The bakery, a franchise, opened Dec. 2, and in February, it will begin selling soups and sandwiches.

It also sells gourmet items including apple and pumpkin butters; award-winning dried soups and chili; flavored olive oils; granola, and whipped honey (flavored with lemon, bumbleberry, French vanilla, cinnamon, apple cinnamon or mountain peach).

And customers can buy gift baskets.

"We have some standard baskets, or customers can grab an empty basket and fill it with whatever goodies a loved one would like," Adams said.

The Great Harvest company, based in Dillon., Mont., began in the 1970s when Pete and Laura Wakeman, a couple of college students, set up a roadside stand in their hometown in Connecticut. They opened their first bakery in Great Falls., Mont., in 1976. The company has 211 bakeries in 42 states, with 16 more bakeries scheduled to open.

The bakery in Tempe is open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m Tuesdays through Fridays and 6 a.m. to 5 p.m Saturdays.

Information: (480) 777-1141 or www.greatharvest.com.

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