Perham, MN
One of my favorite Saturday activities is exploring the small towns around me. It’s something to look forward to each week and helps prevent getting stuck in a rut of the same old everything day in and day out. Some I head to frequently, some are just here and there. Perham is up there for one of my favorites, so I thought it was appropriate to start with that one!
Of course, I love all the cute boutiques and home decor shops that are everywhere, but each town also has some pretty great shops to pick up various and unique ingredients from, or stop to eat.
If you’ve been reading along with anything I’ve posted this month, you can probably see that cheese is one of the top foods eaten in my house. Bongard’s is the best cheese store I’ve been to. They have cheese that’s made locally, as well as a verity of cheese from surrounding areas- mostly Wisconsin. Its pretty much a given that we will leave this store every time with the dill cheese curds and meat sticks of some kind. I’m also a huge fan of the berry cheeses!
https://www.bongards.com/retail-stores/
The package in the back is Raspberry Jalapeno snack sticks- perfection!
The Gathering Grounds is my 2nd must stop place. I should have taken a picture of my coffee, or how cute the shop is, but I forgot, and got caught up in the moment! They have everything from gifts, to a small collection of boutique clothing and jewelry, unique cookbooks, sauces and spices, kitchen gadgets and entertaining items that I guess I can only think of describing as trinkets- but fun things you don’t see everywhere. I’m a complete sucker for uniqueness. If I can find it everywhere I turn, I don’t want it. I want the things that no one else has. The pieces that start conversations.
If you stop here for lunch, I recommend The Nutty Bird and the birds and bees latte. (Its just a coincidence that both my favorites have “bird,” in the name.)
https://gatheringgroundsperham.com/
Cheese markers at Gathering Grounds.
I definitely should have taken a picture of the front of this store, rather than the side, since the front is a lot nicer looking, but it is what it is now. This was my first time stopping at Lakes Community Coop Meat Market, but I’ll be back. They had a good selection and not what you see everywhere else.
Bonus: I found my Evergreen Bakery Pickles! One of the Amish farms we used to visit closed their shop and only does the farmers market in Perham now. They had THE BEST PICKLES. The market is Friday from 9-1. Unfortunately, I work weekdays, so there is no way I’ll make this schedule for their market. BUT, I was so happy to find the pickles here. I’m not totally out of luck, I guess!
https://www.lakescommunitycoop.com/meat-market
Raspberry Chipotle and Pineapple Teriyaki brats, and smoked chicken wings.
This shop is new this year, but 100% worth the stop. It probably falls more in the home decor category than anything else, but I could have spent an hour in there, so figured I should spread the word. They had some pretty awesome wood items. If I ever decide to take some cupboards off the wall and replace them with floating shelves- this is the place!
https://www.facebook.com/Northpinesmarket/
Cookbook was from Gathering Grounds. Menu book from North Pines.
There are plenty of other shops we didn’t stop in this last time. You could easily spend the day downtown if you wanted, Big Pine Books, Nest and The Goose Gang toy store to name a few. So, if you’re not terribly busy this Saturday and you’re in the area, why not?