The Town of Loxahatchee Groves will mark 20 years of incorporation on Sunday, November 8, at Loxahatchee Groves Park. That same weekend, Swank Farm on North Road is hosting a 24-seat farmhouse wine dinner on Saturday night and a Four Seasons chef dinner on Sunday evening. The town's party wraps up at 2 p.m., and the chef dinner starts at 4.
That overlap is a good picture of what the town set out to protect in 2006. Loxahatchee Groves covers roughly 8,000 acres. Its open land and its farm roads are what make this fall worth planning around, from the Swank Farmers Market's opening Saturday through the anniversary weekend in November.
What the Town Voted to Keep
The Southern States Land and Timber Company bought this land in 1902. Pioneers and farmers started settling it after the West Palm Beach Canal was finished in 1917. For decades the area stayed rural while the rest of the county developed around it. After a multi-year process, voters chose to incorporate in 2006 to slow the spread of development at the town's edges.
Today the town calls itself "Florida's Last Frontier" and counts more than 3,000 residents. Mayor Lisa El-Ramey told the Town-Crier the reason for incorporating hasn't changed much since then:
"The driving force behind the efforts made over 20 years ago is practically the same today: home rule and the ability to make the decisions that most directly affect our community at the local level. The community motto for years was 'Love It and Leave It Alone.' That sentiment still captures much of what residents value about Loxahatchee Groves."
The fall calendar shows that motto in practice. A farm market can run Saturdays from October through May only if the farm is still there.
North Road Opens for the Season Next Saturday
Swank Farmers Market starts its seventh season on Saturday, October 10, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and then runs every Saturday through May. The market is held in an 8,500-square-foot open-air barn at 14311 North Road. Swank's own produce is joined by more than 25 other bakers, growers, gardeners and food sellers.
The vendor list is mostly local food producers. It includes:
- Old Okeechobee Coffee Company and Rebecca's Pastry for an early start
- Red Beard Ranch, Sutton Milk and Alonso Apiaries for pantry staples
- Paulie's Pasta, King of Hummus, Perogie's and Blue Ribbon Gumbo for the week's dinners
- Caribbean Plants and Produce, Gratitude Garden Farms and Tropical Utopia for growers' tables
- Swank Salad Bar, run by the farm itself
Parking is free, and the farm invites visitors to say hello to its pigs, sheep and farm cats. Only service dogs are allowed, and the farm puts that rule in capital letters. Swank doesn't take art, jewelry or crafts vendors, so the barn stays focused on food.
One practical note if you live in The Acreage. Swank's directions page says a gate now blocks car access to the farm via 140th through The Acreage. Bikes and pedestrians can still get through. Drivers need one of the alternate routes the farm maps out on its site, including one that comes in from Northlake. Since the gate only stops cars, neighbors to the north can still bike to the market.
The Same Saturday, Out on Okeechobee Boulevard
October 10 is also the first big evening of the season at the Community of Hope pumpkin patch, 14055 Okeechobee Boulevard. The patch is open daily from September 28 through October 31, 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Its first themed evening, Moos & Boots, brings Highland cows you can feed and brush, plus a scavenger hunt and country-themed story time. That makes October 10 a full day of local events, with the market barn in the morning and the cows in the evening.
Here is the rest of October in and around the Groves:
| Date | Event | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 10 | Swank Farmers Market season opener | 14311 North Road | 9 a.m.–1 p.m. |
| Sat., Oct. 10 | Moos & Boots | Community of Hope pumpkin patch | 4–7 p.m. |
| Sat., Oct. 17 | Garden of Hope Fall Workshop on preserving your harvest | Community of Hope | 9 a.m.–noon |
| Sat., Oct. 17 | Makers Market with handmade goods and acoustic music | Pumpkin patch | 4–7 p.m. |
| Mon., Oct. 19 | Pre K in the Patch, ages 3–5, $10 per family, pre-registration required | Pumpkin patch | 10–11 a.m. |
| Sat., Oct. 24 | Heroes in the Patch, with the Sheriff's Mounted Unit and a Junior Firefighter Obstacle Course | Pumpkin patch | 4–7 p.m. |
| Sat., Oct. 24 | Rock N Fall Fest | Commons Park, 11600 Poinciana Blvd., Royal Palm Beach | 3–9 p.m. |
The fall workshop is the event most tied to the area's farming roots. The Garden of Hope session covers simple ways to preserve what you grow and cut food waste, with tastings and raffles. Community of Hope's Holiday Food Drive also starts October 12. Its Loxahatchee campus takes donations Sunday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the North Porch, ahead of distributions on November 12 and December 10.
November 7 and 8, Hour by Hour
The anniversary weekend packs four events into about 36 hours, and all of them happen on the farm or at the town park:
- Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Swank Farmers Market's regular Saturday hours, five weeks into the season.
- Saturday, 6:30 p.m. The Swank Farmhouse Wine Dinner with Chef Brandon Salomon at 14283 North Road, limited to 24 seats.
- Sunday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Loxahatchee Groves Anniversary Celebration at Loxahatchee Groves Park, 13901 Southern Blvd., with family-style games, activities and free food.
- Sunday, 4 to 8 p.m. "Fall into Winter" with the Four Seasons chefs, a Swank Table dinner at $200 per person. It benefits the Kids Cancer Foundation, is for adults 21 and over, and goes ahead rain or shine. Tickets are non-refundable.
The park event has the most local meaning. Organizers plan to honor veterans ahead of Veterans Day, and the town is putting together a time capsule. Residents are invited to bring small mementos, and paper will be on hand for anyone who wants to write a message to go inside it. The mayor invited both longtime residents and "newer arrivals" to keep showing up after the party, by asking questions, serving on committees and coming to meetings.
The two dinners sell a limited number of seats, and the Saturday wine dinner caps at 24. If you want to combine the town party with an evening at the farm, book the farm seat first.
What the Next 20 Years Look Like From North Road
Councilwoman Anita Kane described the anniversary as marking "a hard-fought battle to preserve our rural lifestyle." She added that the town is "still holding the line and trying to improve the town and keep pace with our needs as the community around us grows and develops."
You can see that growth from the town line. In Westlake, WFLX reported in August that Chase Bank, Dollar Tree, Goodwill, Cold Stone Creamery, Ella's Café and Mavis Tire & Brakes were under construction. The report gave no opening dates. A 188,779-square-foot Walmart and a 134,148-square-foot Lowe's are planned for Town Center West, and neither has an announced opening date. Palm Beach County's October 2 road report lists widening work at Northlake Boulevard and Seminole Pratt Whitney Road, where new signals were activated, and periodic lane closures on the stretch of Northlake just east of the intersection. It also lists culvert work and traffic shifts on Seminole Pratt Whitney at 71st Place N., 75th Lane N., and from 83rd Place to north of 86th Road. The report gives no completion dates. Those are the same roads many people west of the Groves take to reach the market.
The town's own plans, meanwhile, focus on the road the farm sits on. In its March 2026 State of the Town address, the town said its application to finish the North Road trail had been recommended for state FRDAP grant funding. It also said it was pursuing a linear park along the canal system. A recommendation isn't an award, so the trail is still a proposal. The same address reported a state grant to design a Southern Boulevard gateway corridor, with town-set standards for buffers, branding, safety and rural character. The grant described in the address pays for design.
For now, the Groves' fall season runs from a barn at 14311 North Road on October 10 to the time capsule at 13901 Southern Blvd. on November 8.
If you've owned land in Loxahatchee Groves for some of these 20 years and wonder what your acreage is worth as Westlake builds out next door, Helen Bassie would be glad to talk it through over coffee, in English, Spanish, French or Italian. Start with Get Home Value, and Helen will follow up personally with a valuation based on the Groves' rural setting.
