First post-Irma Strawberry Festival will help restore tiny Alva's historic museum

As dull as the same-ol', same-ol' can sometimes get, once everything's been turned upside down, the same-ol' can be truly soul-nourishing..

And that's how I expect this year's first post-Irma Alva Library Museum Strawberry Festival will feel: blessedly normal.

My hometown's annual springtime celebration of its rural heritage (March 10 this year) has never been a big, splashy deal.

We don't have rides, out-of-town bands or a midway. Basically, we just serve up fresh strawberry shortcake, sell books and plants grown by Alva Garden Club members, raffle off pies and diner meals and call it a day. But what a sweet, old-fashioned day it is — and for a good cause: restoring the historic Alva Library Museum. As a member of its all-volunteer board, I can vouch for what a very cool, if financially struggling place it is.

But on September 10, as Irma tore through Alva, we weren't even sure there'd be a building the next day. Our Caloosahatchee riverfront town was one of the hardest-hit inland places. While the rest of the region is largely back to normal, many of our Alva neighbors are still putting their lives back together. The storm totaled many homes in the Oak Park community and along Bedman Creek. It uprooted Civil War-era live oaks. And it sent the steeple on the church next door, Alva United Methodist, crashing to the ground.

Lee's oldest church faces huge deductible for smashed steeple

But aside from some window, tree and trim damage the Museum's buildings are fine. And that's reason to celebrate. 

Here's my annual list of reasons why you should plan to go and make a day of it; if you already know them, the if-you-go details are at the end.

The strawberries: Simply put, the shortcake is superlative. Made from scratch using Garden Club grande dame Nina Rigby’s family recipe, you could easily make a sweetly sinful meal of its fresh crimson fruit piled atop juice-soaked golden pastry heaped with whipped cream. 

The museum: Alva may be small — only 100 or so souls live in its tiny downtown, with the remaining 2,000 give or take scattered nearby — but it's historic. The first incorporated town in Lee County, its 1909 library building, now part of the Alva Museum, is the county's oldest. The garden club runs and cares for the museum, and the strawberry festival is its major annual fundraiser. It will be open during the festival so you can check out its collection, which includes mammoth teeth, Indian canoes, pieces of Mina Edison's wardrobe and some fascinatingly scary antique medical implements. The nonprofit Alva Library Association is working and fundraising to restore the historic building, so you can see for yourself how interesting a place it is.

Rural Southwest Florida full of gems: Goat herding off of State Road 80 in Alva

The food: Beyond the strawberry shortcake and produce, the ladies of the club will be selling homemade cookies, cupcakes, brownies and other baked goods. Across the river, the Alva Diner serves its famous broasted chicken and biscuits while the Handy market across the road offers Southern boiled peanuts, along with chicken gizzards, potato logs and cute little brown paper bags for your beer. 

Alva Diner offers homemade cooking

The book, plant, etc. sale: The building was a library first, after all, so there will be plenty of used books for sale. And the museum is tended by a garden club, after all, so there will be tables of plants for sale, some heirloom varieties grown by club members, others donated by Alva grower Keepsake Plants.

The feel: While Alva can't offer cafes, malls or art galleries, we do have palmetto scrub, cypress swamps, creeks and cattlemen, kids with old-fashioned manners and garden club members like Nina who bake from scratch. In fact, a staple of the festival is the annual raffle of Nina's pie-of-the month. Whoever wins gets 12 of her from-scratch creations in cherry, strawberry, coconut ...

The river: Flowing through the center of town, the Caloosahatchee is Alva's liquid heart. The little pier at the town's boat ramp boasts excellent views, as does the Caloosahatchee Regional Park, a few scenic miles west on State Road 78.

The critters: The Alva Scrub Conservation 20/20 preserve and the Caloosahatchee Regional Park are both home to plenty of wildlife, including gopher tortoises, whitetail deer and scrub jays. Cattle, horses and goats thrive on our ag lands. But drive along SR 78 and you're likely to glimpse some of the more unusual Alva animals — alpacas, camels, zebras — grazing in roadside fields. And if they're not out showing themselves, check out their facebook page: facebook.com/AnimalsofAlva

The cemetery: I'm more a cremation type myself, but with its wind chimes, bovine neighbors and Spanish moss, this place could easily make me change my mind.

The fragrance: It's citrus blossom season. There are still-healthy groves on both sides of the road leading to the Alva Cemetery. Need I say more?

If you go

What: Alva Garden Club's annual strawberry shortcake social, plant and book sale, and museum open house

When: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 10

Where: Alva Museum, 21420 Pearl St., Alva. From Fort Myers, take Palm Beach Boulevard (SR 80) about 15 miles east to Alva. Turn left at Broadway and head north over the bridge. Turn right on Pearl Street. The museum is on the right.

For information: 728-3180.

Etc.: To raise money for the museum's upkeep, there will be raffles throughout the event, including the chance to have Nina Rigby make you a pie a month for a year. Other prizes include pizzas from the Alva Village market and meals at Alva Diner.