The Great Harvest Bread Co. seems to have missed the recession memo. Filled with bustling workers in white aprons, the whir of machinery, and the tantalizing scent of baking breads, the storefront is packed with eager customers sampling slices and stocking up local goods. All the wooden chairs inside and the patio furniture outside are occupied by office-workers on their lunch breaks and friends meeting over coffee and freshly-made Savannah Bars. In the corner, a spiked-haired toddler chews a chunk of bread and rides an old-fashion rocking horse while his Dior-sporting momma eats a turkey sandwich on nine grain bread with two other young moms. A daughter wraps up half her sugar cookie for her white-haired father and tells him to save it for his next coffee break.

The bakery, decorated with antiques and discovered in Old Town Temecula, feels more like someone’s farmhouse kitchen than a store. Perhaps this is because half the people – laughing, smiling, and joking – behind the counter are family or neighbors. I sat down with Bobbie and Alicia Trevithick, the sisters-in-law who opened this franchise with their husbands in February, to talk about the recession, their passion for providing quality, local goods to the community, and their love for our SoCal town. Alicia sneaks a sip of her daughter’s just-blended Mango Tart smoothie and Bobbie finishes bagging a loaf of raisin-eyed Hunny Bunny bread for a customer’s Easter brunch before sitting down for a quick chat.

VN: First of all, how did you two decide you wanted to open a business together?

BT: We have been really, really close for the past eleven years and we get along really well. We all have different things to offer.

AT: Yeah, we have different skills. Bobbie is good at details and numbers and I am more of a big picture person, so when we put them together, like in our past projects, it works well.

VN: What drew you to the Great Harvest Bread, Co.?

BT: We had one in Anchorage, Alaska, where we grew up our whole lives, and loved everything about it from the great ingredients to the healthiness of the bread.

AT: We moved here and wondered where’s the good bread, the whole wheat, the hearty, the home-made? We wanted healthy bread for our families for snacking and sandwiches. The only bread we could find was from San Diego, so it wasn’t fresh.

VN: So, why did you choose to move to Temecula?

BT and AT: The weather!

BT: We all decided, after a trip to Hawaii, that we had to get out of here [Anchorage], we couldn’t take the long winters anymore. We heard about how great Temecula was and started doing research.

AT: After visiting Temecula, we went home and sold both of our houses in twenty-four hours. It only took us about two months, from the time we first heard about it, to buy houses down here.

VN: Were you concerned about the economic climate when you opened?

BT: We were and there was a lot of negativity. That Advertisement
drove us to work harder and prove everyone wrong. You can do something in a bad economy. We were worried but we were also fairly confident [in our product].

AT: Our bread pound for pound is cheaper than grocery store bread and we grind our wheat daily. We are the only ones in Southern California – which we know of – doing that. People are coming back to what’s important, their health and their families, so we knew we were providing an important service. We were also able to hire thirteen of our neighbors and we are proud of the fact that, in this economy, we are able to provide jobs. People are still spending money on things that are healthy and good for the community. We also built this store ourselves because we are all contractors who built homes back in Alaska. We put in a lot of work and research.

VN: What challenges have you faced since opening?

BT: Juggling our kids is definitely a challenge.

AT: Working together eighteen hour days can bring up frustrations but for the most part things have gone smoothly. We have had a lot of family support. The boys’ [their husbands’] family moved down here to be with us.

VN: How is your passion for supporting the community manifested in your daily business?

BT: Living where we do, there is so much available to us in the way of products and produce. We have jams, honey, avocado oil and spreads that were all made locally.

AT: This is an amazing valley. We like to support other business and cut down on emissions, that’s what it is all about. Why order it from somewhere else, when you can get it right here in Temecula? We also do free tours for schools. They learn about whole grains and get a wheat grass garden. We are also supporting a local charity event here May 30th.

BT: We are also donating constantly to any kind of nonprofit. We donated baskets for auctions and food for teacher appreciation week. We are going to be the business that gives, even until it hurts us, because we love to do it.

AT: We don’t sell day-old bread so whatever is left-over at the end of the day gets donated to one of the food banks in the area, whether it’s one hundred loaves or just a few.

VN: What do you like to do here when you’re not working?

AT and BT: [Laughing] Everything!

AT: We love shopping in Old Town and going to the farmer’s markets.

BT: We kind of had a vacation the first whole year we lived here. We played.

VN: What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs, especially in this economic climate?

AT: Nothing risked, nothing gained. You have to do the research and then step out there.

VN: What is your favorite bread or treat here?

BT: High Five Fiber, for sure.

AT: I like the Cinnamon Burst bread. My husband makes French toast with it every Sunday, our only day off.

For more information visithttp://www.greatharvesttemecula.com/index.html.