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.

Kate, there are a lot of rhubarb brownie recipes on the web. I was thinking about them what you said about the chocolate. I was looking for something like my banana "brownie" recipe which uses white chocolate. Rather than reinventing the wheel, because I can't imagine a straight substitution of rhubarb for banana, I found a recipe along those lines, which I hope to make tonight or tomorrow. I'll let you know once I've gotten a good result (no need to waste more rhubarb!) Meantime, I had found a couple of custard recipes, and was trying to squeeze the makings between work-type stuff and dinner, the crustless one, but I was rushing, and when I saw that this recipe called for a crust, I didn't remember that I had a different one. They're very similar, so I think they have a common source, or one inspired the other. The crustless one reads like impossible pie. The crust one has half the flour. Anyway, I just made the crust one without the crust. This is the recipe. I scanted the sugar by a quarter and it's still quite sweet. Next time, I'll try 2/3 of what it says. I also measured the ingredients by eye, except the rhubarb. The custard is only two eggs worth, but it was sufficient, since the pint is just to hold together the rhubarb. Anyway, we think it's fantastic. Quick and easy and very rhubarby. The orange zest and juice just enhance it. It is a little wet crustless, since there's so much water in rhubarb. A nice crust to soak it up might be nice... But it's so good as is, as more of a pudding than a pie, I see no need to "fix" it. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/rhubarb-custard-pie-recipe-2107834 This is the one I was supposed to be making (and posted first as a couple of following posts attest): https://www.kitchenfrau.com/crustless-rhubarb-custard-pie/