Small Wander Trail

05/29/2026

If you haven't see it yet, here's our latest spur: Farm Wander Trail ! It's a fun and interactive app directory featuring farms, farmstands, and fresh goods all around the Chicagoland area! Go check it out, and if you're a farm we should add, submit it through the app! If you're a farm on the list, but you haven't claimed your profile, please do so more people can learn about you!

Happy wandering! https://www.farmwandertrail.com

A fun app built by a local farm gal with a passion for connecting you to fresh, community‑grown foods and goods.

05/06/2026

A new app is coming, and it features something for the curious seekers!!! Stay tuned!

01/05/2026

Happy New Year! It's time to announce our winners of the Lake County Winter Wander Passport! With so many places to visit, and a wonderful assortment of gifts and gift certificates, we have 20 - yes TWENTY - winners. (**Winners, you'll be notified by email shortly, so keep an eye on your inbox for how to claim your prizes!)

Here they are: C. Williams (Grand Prize), S. Walker (2nd Place), T. Duke (3d Place), and our runners' up: M. Dominiak, P. Warren, S. Lauer, W. Cholewinski, B. Henning, L. Anselmino, L. Williams, T. Vickers, M. Jandula, N.Biernat, J. Gavigan, C. Shilling, M. Patterson, S. Bensch, P. Rompala, E. Cummisford, C. Aron.

We want to thank each and every one of you who made your way around to our participating shops, and for our shop keepers for making our first Passport such a success! You are the reason Lake County has so many wonderful options and reasons to shop small year-round!

Stay tuned for the next version of our Passport down the road. Until then, have a Happy New Year and we wish you and yours a fantastic 2026!

12/31/2025

🎉🌟🎉Happy New Year's Eve everybody!

❄️☃️❄️Today's the last day to check in on the Winter Wander Passport! If you look at our last post you can see how close you are to being in the best prize pool! More entries means greater chances for you to win the best prizes! With wonderful gifts and fantastic gift certificates provided by our shops, there will be multiple winners. Could it be you?! 🤔

❤️🌟❤️We want to thank all of the shops that have participated in this, as well as all of you Wanderers who have visited the shops along our trail. We hope you discovered new shops that will become favorites of yours for a long time to come. 🛍️🫶🛍️

We will be announcing winners next week, and we cannot wait to reveal our next passport programs to con! Happiest Holidays and we wish you the best 2026! 🎉❄️🌟🎉☃️❄️🌟❄️☃️🎉🌟🎉☃️❄️🌟🎉☃️❄️🌟

12/30/2025

12/30/2025

Last day before the end of 2025 tomorrow ✨
Before we ring in 2026, let’s dream a little…

What’s YOUR cooking & entertaining goal for the new year?
Vote below or drop yours in the comments 👇

🥂 Host more dinner parties
🍝 Learn to cook one cuisine really well
🔥 Get confident with the basics (like knife skills)
🍰 Bake more from scratch
🌍 Travel through food at home
🕯️ Elevate weeknight dinners

We’re building a LOT of classes, demos, and experiences around these ideas in 2026 — and we want them to reflect what YOU actually want to learn and do.

✨ Comment with your pick (or add your own!) and let’s make 2026 delicious.

12/30/2025

Here are our New Year hours!
We will be here from 7:30AM-12PM tomorrow and CLOSED on Thursday! We will be back to normal hours starting Friday. Hope everyone stays safe and has a beautiful New Year!

12/30/2025