We recently discovered Tieghan Gerard, aka Half Baked Harvest, after our ultimate Insta girl crush Ashley Striecher shared her eggnog cinnamon buns. Seriously, we swiped up so fast. 

Falling into Tieghan’s feed and a subsequent website browse, we started following and crushing on her as well as her food. Our cookbook orders were placed and the recipes started flowing from both our kitchens. It’s saying something because we often end up being those cookbook owners who leave them gathering dust on the shelf while we ramble our own way through the meal plans. Not this time.  

It got us thinking. What was it about Tieghan and her feed that instantly hooked us in? Her story. 

Here’s the lowdown...

One of 7 children, Tieghan moved with her family to the Colorado mountains aged 14 and began cooking in a bid to help tame mealtime chaos and get dinner on the table at a respectable hour. 

Encouraged by her mum, Tieghan began photographing the process (self-taught) and documenting her best recipes (written herself) and launched her blog in 2012. She tries to live simply, eat seasonally and cook with whole foods. 

Her converted horse barn is where she cooks, captures the process, feeds her family and makes a giant mess (our kinda gal). Her Insta’s worth checking out for the interiors and window views alone, even if cooking isn’t your thing. Although once you’ve seen what she cooks, your taste buds will be revelling. 

Nine years since the blog began, Tieghan’s now a New York Times best-selling author with two cookbooks to her name, 2.5million Instagram followers and enough great media coverage any brand would go ga ga over. 

You may be thinking, so what? How is any of this more captivating than the hundreds of thousands of other cooks and food bloggers out there? Here’s why she captivated us…

STORY

Stories are powerful and the Half Baked Harvest story hooked us for many reasons: 

• Tieghan’s journey began through trial and error while helping to cook for her family. Self-taught in all things with her family on hand to help (her dad comes by at 5pm everyday to help clean up), we can’t help but love the humble beginnings to huge success journey this story’s taken. 
• Real and perfectly imperfect, there are fumbles and subsequent smashed glassware while filming one-handed and Tieghan doesn’t try to hide it. We love it when people keep it real.
• Colorado, ski runs on the doorstep, a Whole Foods down the road and beautiful interiors to boot. We’re hooked and love getting an insight into life in the mountains. 

The pull you feel to a brand as a result of its story demonstrates the importance of your story and how it can connect with your ideal audience. 

Your story’s unique and while it may not resonate with everyone, it will resonate.  Think about your audience, think about your story and how you can capture the attention of one with the other. 

What would make your ideal customer sit up and think, “I love that!”? 

IMAGERY

It’s not just the story itself that’s compelling and on this occasion, wasn’t the first thing that caught our eye. Like most things discovered on Instagram, it started with the image. 

Most obviously when you check out Half Baked Harvest, it’s the photography and mouth-watering effect it has on no doubt most of the people who view Tieghan’s feed, website and books. 

While the food itself looks delicious, Tieghan’s styling is simple yet stunning. From the ingredients and finished dish flatlays to glimpses of the horse barn interior, we’re girls who like pretty things and it ticks every box. 

HOW TO 

This isn’t the first food account we’ve followed. Nor is it the first cook book we’ve bought. Yet this is the first food account where we can wholeheartedly say we’ve actually used consistently. Why? Tieghan’s Instagram stories are what did it, she shows you how. 

Every day her stories are filled with an easy to follow step-by-step process for a recipe, talking you through what to do. Ideal for anyone who lacks confidence in the kitchen or prefers a tell-me-what-to-do-so-I-don’t-have-to-think-too-much approach (yes please).

CONNECTION 

HBH nails audience engagement. Why? Easy, Tieghan actually engages with her audience! Only a few days after we’d discovered her we commented on her stories, asking her a question about one of the ingredients she used. A few hours later, we got a reply and has since responded to every comment or like we’ve made on her feed. 

Who knows for sure if it was actually Tieghan herself replying (we like to think so) but the point is we instantly felt valued and it made us warm to her all the more. Building connection and engaging and nurturing your audience is key. 

Pay attention to your behaviour online and learn what actually makes us engage with brands, people and influencers. 

So go give her a follow, admire her feed, follow the story and give the cinnamon buns a whirl. 

And if you’re anything like Becca, search 'Margarita' on the Half Baked Harvest website to discover pages of recipes, from frozen cranberry and orange to watermelon. Delicious! 

Get your hands on the gorgeous Half Baked Harvest Cookbook here. 

What we’ve tried so far (and highly recommend)

• One Skillet Greek Meatballs and Lemon Butter Orzo
• 30 Minute creamy Thai Turmeric Chicken and Noodles
• 5 Minute Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread Mug Cake
• Easiest Cinnamon Crunch Knots 

If you give any of her recipes a go, make sure you tag us in your post so we can see how it turned out!

Enjoy.

Laura