Loxahatchee Groves Turns 20 This Weekend. Here's How to Spend It, From the Farm Market to the Park.

Saturday morning at 14311 North Road starts with coffee from Old Okeechobee Coffee Company inside an open-air barn. Pigs, sheep and farm cats wander near the parking area. The next day, a parade leaves Southern Palm Bed and Breakfast and heads to Loxahatchee Groves Park, where the town marks 20 years since residents voted to incorporate. The road between those two places matters as much as either stop. Loxahatchee Groves has stayed rural for two decades mostly by keeping its roads slow, narrow and under local control. This weekend's events all run along the roads where that work happened.

Twenty years of keeping things as they are

The land has been farmed for a long time. The Southern States Land and Timber Company bought it in 1902. After the West Palm Beach Canal was finished in 1917, pioneers and farmers began settling there, according to the Town-Crier's anniversary coverage. As development spread across the rest of the county, residents went through a process that took several years and voted in 2006 to incorporate. Their goal was to keep urbanization from closing in around them.

Mayor Lisa El-Ramey told the Town-Crier the reason hasn't changed in 20 years. "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," she said. "The community motto for years was 'Love It and Leave It Alone.'" Councilwoman Anita Kane put it more plainly in the same article: "This is the anniversary of a hard-fought battle to preserve our rural lifestyle. We're still holding the line."

"Holding the line" has usually meant holding the road. The weekend shows how.

Saturday: a farm market reached by back roads

Swank Farmers Market opened its seventh season on October 10. It runs every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through May. Swank Specialty Produce sells its own crops in an open-air barn of 8,500 square feet, and more than 25 bakers, growers and food makers set up alongside it. On the farm's current list, a Saturday shopping run could include:

• Breakfast: Old Okeechobee Coffee Company, pastries from Anna Bakes and Rebecca's Pastry, and the farm's own Swank Salad Bar
• For the week's cooking: Paulie's Pasta, Italian Forks, King of Hummus, Blue Ribbon Gumbo and Perogie's
• Pantry and dairy: Sutton Milk, Alonso Apiaries, Polo Spice, La-Vida Vanilla and The Nourishing Pantry
• Meat and greens: Red Beard Ranch, Gratitude Garden Farms, Bare Foot Livin Farms and Caribbean Plants and Produce
• Something to take home: Ernie the Potter, Miami Club Spirits and The Tasting Room Jon Wine

Vendor lineups change from week to week over a season that lasts until May, so think of this list as a snapshot. Bring large shopping bags. Parking is free. The farm asks that no dogs come other than service dogs.

The directions show how the area's roads shape a trip. The farm's page warns that a gate now closes off the route via 140th through The Acreage, so only bicycles and pedestrians can get through that way. Drivers need one of the other routes on the farm's maps. A road that was once a through route now carries only people on foot or bike, which is the motto put into practice.

Sunday: the parade, the park and the time capsule

The town's own listing gives the main event. It's called "Celebrate Loxahatchee Groves' 20th & America's 250th Anniversaries" and runs Sunday, November 8, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Loxahatchee Groves Park, 13901 Southern Blvd. The town calendar promises family activities, patriotic festivities and special recognition for veterans. The Town-Crier adds free food and family-style games.

The parade comes first. It starts at Southern Palm Bed and Breakfast and ends at the park just before the celebration begins. The town shares the parade information for residents' awareness and states that this doesn't mean it endorses or sponsors the parade or its organizers. There's a precedent. Last year's Veterans Day, Founders' Day and Family Day parade followed the same route on Saturday, November 8, 2025, stepping off at 10:30 a.m., as the Town-Crier reported. Entry was free. This year's listing gives no start time, so arrive near Southern Blvd well before 11 a.m. if you want to watch it go by.

The time capsule is the part of the day built to last. To make the most of it:

1. Bring a small memento. Town officials are inviting residents to leave one in a capsule to be opened in the future.
2. Write something down. The town will provide paper for messages.
3. Plan to honor a veteran. Organizers are combining the anniversary with Veterans Day.

El-Ramey made the invitation broad. She told the Town-Crier she hopes longtime residents, "along with more of our newer arrivals," will keep serving on committees and attending meetings. "The best way to honor that effort is to make sure that residents continue to have a meaningful role in determining what Loxahatchee Groves will be in another 20 years."

The road in the middle of town

Anyone driving between the market and the park this weekend will likely use the town's most contested road. Okeechobee Blvd is one of only two roads in Loxahatchee Groves owned by Palm Beach County, the Town-Crier reported last fall. The county owns the right-of-way and the pavement. The town sets the speed limit and controls whether the road can add lanes. Today the limit is 30 miles per hour from A Road to F Road.

That split is why the road looks the way it does. "The fact that we have traffic control along Okeechobee Blvd. has been a saving grace for us in a lot of situations, as far as trying to keep it slow and two lanes," Kane said at an October 6 council meeting, per the Town-Crier.

Changes to that road are coming this winter. At the same meeting, County Engineer David Ricks presented plans for six equestrian crossings on Okeechobee Blvd, one at each intersection from A Road to F Road. Each will have pavement striping, two solar-powered rectangular rapid flashing beacons for equestrians, two push buttons for riders and two advance warning signs. The county developed the plan as a cheaper alternative after the town applied for a $1 million grant for equestrian trail projects. The town won't pay for the installation. County officials expect work to start in early December and finish in January.

Even this project raised the question of control. As of the Town-Crier's October 16 report, the council still had to decide whether the town would maintain the equipment itself or sign an interlocal agreement making the county responsible. Council members wanted to keep the town's authority over traffic. "We are not trying to take traffic control," county Mayor Sara Baxter said at the meeting. "We are just trying to find a way to have safer crossings for equestrian riders." An agreement could cover only the crossings and leave the town's traffic powers alone.

The road's name is also in question. On January 6, 2026, the council passed a resolution 3-2 to start renaming the town's stretch of Okeechobee Blvd back to Middle Road, its historic name. Kane and El-Ramey voted against it, the Town-Crier reported. Under the process outlined that month, property owners along the road would be notified, given a chance to object and then other agencies would update their records. Staff recommended 90 days for notice, including a 30-day window for objections. Councilman Todd McLendon, who first proposed the change in October 2025, described it as one more way to protect the town's traffic policies on the road. Coverage this October still calls it Okeechobee Blvd, and that's the name to use on Sunday.

Taken together, the 30-mile-per-hour limit, the two lanes, the beacons arriving in December and the proposed return to the Middle Road name are this year's version of the 2006 vote. Each one keeps decisions about how fast and how wide the town grows in local hands. The parade on Sunday morning travels along that same road.

Martha's Properties works with owners whose acreage and horses depend on roads like these: trail access, quiet crossings and a town that still sets its own speed limits. If you're weighing what a Loxahatchee Groves property is worth in the town's next 20 years, we'd welcome the conversation. Request Private Listing Access & Consultation.