Submitted by Michelle
A month ago we put a fresh coat of paint on all the walls.  In order to celebrate 5 wonderful years that the bakery's been open, we thought we'd change things up a little.  Soooooo.... We had a makeover blitz weekend starting at 3pm on Saturday.  
 Sat, 3pm: Out with the old:


Sat, 6pm: In with the new:
 

 Sun, 9a: Out with the old:


In with the new:
 

Mon, 9am: Out with the old:


Mon, 4pm:  In with the new:


Thanks to all the folks who made this happen!  JP's parents (above!) who were with the kids all week.  Our employees who scraped, lifted, painted, cleaned, & more!  Eddie Johnson, an extremely talented carpenter from Rayne who built our new
counters!  Terry McComic from Trinity Graphx who made all our of the beautiful signage.  Edgar Lafleur, the best Computer Tech guy in town!  To Kaylee from Montana who worked until 3am on Monday night! Thanks to all of you, we did it over 1 weekend without having to lose a day of sales!  WOW!

Come by & see the fresh coat.  We hope you like it!

Let’s start this post with the big picture: the oil has stopped flowing into the Gulf.  A lot of Louisiana men and women played a huge part in fixing that problem and we tip our tie-dyed bandanas to them.  With that said, even if you take the most optimistic estimates that have been published, there is still oil in the water, on the beaches, and in the marshlands of the Gulf Coast.  This is a gigantic challenge to the families that work those waters.

J.P. & Michelle (and the rest of the crew) wanted to do something for the people that make a living off Louisiana's coastlands.  Year after year, season after season, they give us the best of their catches and we feast on them at our dinner tables. 

We want to return the favor.

We’re sending some love down to these families in the form of loaves of Honey Whole Wheat.  You’re invited to join us: every loaf that you come in and donate between Tuesday, September 28^th and Friday, October 1^st will be matched, loaf for loaf, by Great Harvest.  My personal goal is that you buy enough that my arms will be sore by the end of the week from kneading all of those loaves!!!

We realize that this issue has become politicized and we don’t want anyone to feel like we’re taking sides or helping some people at the expense of others.  We asked two people close to fishing families for five reasons why this is beneficial:

1. Many people are back to work fishing. However, as one fisherman pointed out; "fishing is not the same as catching." There are mixed reports right now about the amount and size of the shrimp being caught. Additionally, many seafood brokers are refusing to buy Louisiana seafood because of the national perception that it is covered in oil.

2. Some fishermen who worked the spill in their fishing boats are starting to get sick and cannot go back on the water. We had a front page story about it in the Comet and Courier.

3. Fishing families typically rely on the profits from their fall catch to get them through the winter with boat repairs and family bills. If they can't make money now, they will need help in the winter and there will be no BP jobs for their boats.

4. No one yet knows the impact of the oil on the larvae in the Gulf. What will happen to the shrimp, crabs, oysters and finfish in the spring and next fall?

5. BP has not provided any direct humanitarian funding since their initial contribution in May. That money ran out over the summer in most places along the Gulf.

Robert D. Gorman, LCSW, ACSW
Executive Director
Catholic Charities
Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux

 

1) Many people are still struggling to make ends meet with waters still closed for fishing and those areas that are open, fishermen often find oil and refuse to bring that in.  Their seafood is being called "safe to eat" yet there is resistance from buyers, because of the perception that it is not safe to eat.

 2) The worst is yet to come, as fishermen usually work all the summer and save money to live on in the winter months. Now there are no savings and no fish or seafood in their freezers to feed their families.

3) There are great concerns by the fishermen and other community members, not only about the seafood and quality, but about air quality due to oil and dispersant intrusion into the communities. There have also been concerns about incidents of raid wildlife and fish kills.

4) There is a rise in need for health care. Both mental and physical due to the issues described above. People fear that the seafood industry and their lives will never ever again be the same. Many are not sleeping, people are angry, depressed and in distress and feel like no one cares about their lives and the effect this has had on their livelihoods.

5) The whole issue of payments for losses by Mr. Feinberg has caused more stress and disappointment as fishermen and others are receiving offers of very small amounts that will not even help pay their household bills for one month much less for the next six. Most payments we have heard are in the $600.00 range.

Sharon S. Gauthe, BISCO Director
BISCO (Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing)

 

We’ve been getting a ton of questions about gluten in our bread.  Some of this genuinely related to people with Celiac Disease but a large portion of it is people who are confused because they keep hearing over and over again in the news that gluten is bad but not why or how.  We did a little research to find articles specifically discussing gluten-free diets for people without Celiac Disease or wheat allergies.  We hope this helps to cut through some of the confusion.

Also, we’re not going to be doing any gluten-free products in the near future… we have the top 1% of wheat in America and it is the centerpiece of everything that we make!


The bevy of new products, from gluten-free pasta to pizza and beer, are a boon to people with celiac disease, wheat allergies or gluten sensitivity who are on very restrictive diets. That group has grown dramatically in recent decades, for reasons not understood.

Are they beneficial to everyone else? Probably not.

The notion that a gluten-free diet can help people lose weight or avoid carbohydrates is a myth. "Many packaged gluten-free products are even higher in carbs, sugar, fat and calories than their regular counterparts, and they tend to be lower in fiber, vitamins and iron," says Shelley Case, a registered dietician on the medical advisory board of the Celiac Disease Foundation. "Gluten-free does not mean nutritious," she notes.




Some of the gluten-free market has been fueled by articles and books claiming that many people — perhaps even half the population — could cure everything from obesity to arthritis if they'd just cut out the gluten.

Doctors say those claims are seriously overblown, and note that gluten-free diets don't benefit people who don't have a genuine problem with gluten. But they do agree that a gluten-free diet can help a limited number of patients who don't have celiac.

"You can have celiac disease and you can also have a gluten sensitivity not associated with celiac disease,'' said Dr. Patrick Brady, a gastroenterologist at the University of South Florida. Because of the damage to the small intestine that celiac disease causes, those patients must avoid gluten entirely.




Gluten-free is not a no-carb plan, and it shouldn't be used as a weight-loss strategy, says Tricia Thompson, RD, author of The Gluten-Free Nutrition Guide. The diet is designed for people with celiac disease, an autoimmune digestive disorder that causes intolerance to gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley products. There are major health dangers in going gluten-free: By skipping fortified breads and cereals, you're missing out on folate, which can lead to an increase in the amino acid homocysteine, raising your risk of a heart attack by as much as 200 percent.




When wheat flour is fortified with vitamins and iron, it boosts the nutrient content of the diet. When it’s a whole grain, it also adds fiber. But eliminating wheat flour, which means forgoing pasta, bread, and cereals, can cause flagging energy levels and those low-blood-sugar induced headaches that occur when not enough carbs are eaten.

“So many people are needlessly avoiding gluten and spending a small fortune on doing so,” [dietician Tanya] Thomas said. “Not only is it a waste of time and money when there’s no real problem, it can make your attempts to lose weight and get healthier backfire.”

It takes a special type of person to be a life-long fan of the Ragin’ Cajuns football team and that would be me.  I bleed Vermilion Red.  I rushed the field when we beat A&M back in 1995.  I facepalmed in agony as, yet again, we failed to score a touchdown in a game against LSU.  I expect the worst yet, every game, I hope for the best.  Maybe this will be the year that we get to a bowl.  Maybe this will be the year that we beat a BCS team and win the following week against a weaker opponent.

It’s different for you LSU fans, isn’t it?  You expect national championships.   You expect to gut the team that Nick Saban is coaching and hang their intestines from the crossbars.  You talk about the great plays all week long and moan on Monday like no other fans when the Tigers perform below your sky-high expectations.  Watching the Saints play this past year let me live the life and expectations of an LSU fan for a few months... it was a euphoric experience.

While we might cheer at the demise of “the other team” in the state we can agree on one thing: Football is King in South Louisiana.  We recognize that and want to give you something special to bring to your tailgating party: Gouda Beer Bread is back!!!

Saturdays this Fall we’ll be making our Gouda Beer Bread with Louisiana Beer.  Whether you’re driving across the Basin or across town to cheer for your team, we’ve got the item that’ll be the talk of tailgating!

Is it just me or was traffic really bad at 3 in the afternoon this week?  Is there a little more stress and hurry in the air that there has been for the rest of the summer?  Have you seen strange, flashing lights in the early dawn hours going down the roads? 

If so, then it can mean only one thing: school is back in session!  Fall (if we can really call August that in South Louisiana) is also when apples are in season.  As always, we’re bringing back some of our favorite apple concoctions for you!

Apple Scotch (that's it on the top shelf in the photo) is the ultimate treat after little Junior gets out of school: a bread with granny smith apple chunks, butterscotch chips, and a vanilla cookie on top.  It’s available Wednesdays and Fridays

Cinnamon Apple Swirl is just what you need to get on the teacher’s good side in the dog-eat-dog world of competition for Teacher’s Pet… it’ll nuke that apple Susie DoGooder brings to class.  Cinnamon Apple Swirl is our Cinnamon Burst Extreme with apples swirled in, too!  Available Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

Our Apple Nut Muffins and Teacakes have Fall spices folded in with apple chunks & pecans in a lovely little teacake/muffin.  Available Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

Don’t forget the Bayou Bars!  We try to have a variety with apple in it most days, too!

About a month ago we announced our Dog-Human Lookalike Contest and now we're happy to announce that we have a winner!!!

Congratulations to Leigh McGowen, our Bowser of the Year!

There’s been a decent amount of publications lately that are highlighting the correlation between good food and children’s test scores in standardized testing.  The recent program Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution highlighted that point when the area he focused on in Britain saw test scores jump significantly once school lunches were switched to real, whole foods and made-from-scratch cooking.

While we can do small things for our schools like sign petitions and call our local school board representative to ask for systematic change, the simplest thing we can do now is send our kids to school with a lunch box.  That’s what my wife and I recently started doing now that our oldest son is in school… and it is not as time-intensive as you might think.  Our oldest is too young to see test score results but we’ve noticed smaller mood swings in the afternoon now that we’ve dropped school lunch from our family’s menu! 

Here’s our template we invite you to try with your kids:

• A  sandwich, made on Honey Whole Wheat, Challah, or Dakota
• A piece of fruit cut up the night before
• A small salad with his favorite dressing
• A small bag of chips or crackers (they’ll eat it first every time)
• 100% fruit juice or water

It takes five minutes to put this meal together and it’s got enough staying power to keep our six year-old going throughout the day without bogging him down with tons of refined carbohydrates and simple sugars.  Obviously we’ve got some self-promotion in that menu… it’s got Great Harvest bread!  However, we stand by our products – simple, made-from-scratch, breads with ingredients you can read and understand without a dictionary.  Great for getting adults through the day, too!

G. Harvest was a man who experienced more in one month than most men experience in one decade.  His adventures inspire the foods that we make.  Here’s the story behind our Honey Mustard Dressing.


Our Honey Mustard Dressing is available on all of our salads during Lunch hours: 11am to 2pm, Tuesday through Saturday.  Madame Dar Dar is welcome to have a free salad every time she comes in.

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if we had Rye bread I’d have… well, I actually have no idea how much money I’d have.  That’s how much people ask about rye.   However, when we’ve made it in the past it didn’t sell enough to keep it on the regular menu (sorry!).  We’ve got a few other varieties of bread that fell into that same category which presented J.P. & Michelle with a problem: how do we make the customers that love those breads happy?

You and I might say that you can’t make everyone happy but these are former rocket scientists we’re talking about!  They think they’ve found a way… the Saturday Special.  Every Saturday until school starts we’ll be making a different variety of some of your past favorites so check the list and see if yours is on there!

July 17^th – Farmhouse Buns
July 24^th – Windmill White
July 31^st – Caraway Rye
August 7^th – Rosemary Garlic
August 14^th – Acadian Herb

I'm a cat person but even I have to admit that dogs are awesome.  You don't see a show called "The Cat Whisperer" on TV, right?  There's something about a dog that makes people happy and we want to give Acadiana dogs a big Thank You for being in our lives.  This Summer, in July & August, we're donating 25% of all our Dog Bone sales to the Acadiana Humane Society!  This Fall, in September and October, we're donating 25% of our Dog Bone sales again, this time to Animal Aid!  We make our Dog Bones with simple, natural ingredients... just like our bread!


Also we're having a "Dog & Human Look Alike" contest this Summer!  A prize will go to the owner who looks most like their dog.  You can submit photos on Facebook or bring 'em into the store.  The winners will receive a $40 Great Harvest gift basket (including Dog Bones, of course)!

The deadline is August 3rd to submit and we'll announce the winner on August 6th!