Brutal but fixed the problem... Living in the UK: Mid season (June) after an infestation of small black dots (presumably eggs but I never worked out what they were and may not be relevant) the edges of the leaves started turning red and thicker than usual round the edges. After some searching it sounds like it had a fungal infection and the best solution was to dig it up and throw it away. As it is my only plant I thought I’d try some “kill or cure” first. I harvested all the stems and leaves so all that was left was closed buds. I then boiled the kettle, put it in the watering can (don’t melt your watering can) and watered the plant and the surrounding area with a radius of a foot. After a week I harvested and watered again. Apart from a few scorch marks on some of the leaves because some idiot poured boiling water on them the plant was cured. :)

I just made a rhubarb galette yesterday ( not really different than a crostata I’d say). It was nice to use the rhubarb from our sweet Mennonite farm stand. I was winging the filling proportions and used 3 c rhubarb, 6 tb sugar, and 1 tb cornstarch. it tasted nice but the rather thin juices did run and my pastry really stuck to the parchment. A bit more cornstarch might have prevented that. cheers to spring fruit dessert!

We both like rhubarb. I like my pie like a purist, no strawberries in my rhubarb pie ;) But I'll also make rhubarb sauce, and while I haven't for a while, rhubarb jam. I'd bought some rhubarb jam at a Farmers Market and DH loved it. It's funny how few really enjoy rhubarb though. DH will ask me to make a rhubarb dessert when we're going some where to share it and I always hesitate. We do have one friend I know who really enjoys it. Another who shudders at the thought and one of DH's sisters refuses to even taste ;) We had a large patch when I was growing up. My sister and I would sneak the sugar bowl outside, cut, dip in sugar and eat rhubarb stalks straight from the garden. Neither one of us can remember why being sneaky. No one cared if we ate sugar. Maybe it just made it more fun - we so seldom did anything naughty. I'm not growing any right now but have friends who share. I always have some in my freezer. Would my deer eat it? I suspect they would. I'm sure at least the fawns would eat it, they will eat absolutely anything while developing their tastes.

" Lots of people mix it with sweeter fruit to cut down on sugar... " Glucose is glucose and fructose. Fructose is fructose and glucose. For the same reason that high fructose corn syrup is viewed as not necessarily the best ingredient to eat healthwise, consuming higher levels of fructose in fruit form causes the same effect. Some studies I found by search suggested that digesting higher levels of fructose is more difficult for the body than sucrose and potentially has long term adverse effects. There is a difference relative to spiking insulin production between the two but someone without diabetes risks isn't helped by substituting fructose for glucose. Everything in moderation.