Re: Duct tape and refrigerators ["Appliances can short out all kinds of fuses" in "Sauce" by Margi Shrum, Food & Flavor, June 25]: Yes, duct tape works. It's how I manage to keep the shelves on my refrigerator door. Even when the company sent new ones a month after I bought the appliance, the shelves (with contents) always fell off. Duct tape forever!

SALLY CECIL

North Point Breeze

Your story ["Community goodwill is found among fruit" in "Local Flavor" by Bob Batz Jr., Food & Flavor, June 25] was terrific and added a smile to my day.

As a former Kennedy resident who spent the summers gleaning black raspberries from backyard bushes, and as a Columbus, Ohio, resident who has been keeping an eye on the ripening of my neighbors' pear, apple and sour cherry trees and Concord grape vines (those are delicious -- and the fragrance ... mmmmm), I can relate!

My freezer will be full with the lovely urban fruit that will become pies, tarts and jams in the upcoming months.

Happy picking (and eating)!

AMY KOVACH

Clintonville, Ohio

I enjoyed your rhubarb features and liked some of the new, non-dessert ideas they gave me to try. But Elizabeth Anderson's response to the rhubarb columns also caught my eye ["Food Feedback," Food & Flavor, June 18]. I am a lifelong rhubarb lover. I made sure my husband liked it too, BEFORE I married him. My son's first solid food was rhubarb pie (no flavor-dulling strawberries, thank you). So I am wondering if Ms. Anderson would be willing to share her recipe for the pie with maple sugar topping she mentioned? I enjoy good, old-fashioned New England cooking and ingredients, but I have never seen a recipe for a pie topping like hers. [She shared the recipe, and it's at right.]

Thanks for a great section every week. In some places I have lived, the local papers no longer devote much space to food and cooking, and I missed my favorite part of the week's news!

JOSIE PEPE

Moon

Rhubarb Maple Pie

Elizabeth Anderson, of Richland, happily sent this recipe to share with all of our readers. "I revised Gram's recipe because she must have had a sweet tooth!"

• 3 cups rhubarb, diced
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 beaten egg
• 2 tablespoons cream (if you have it)

Prepared single 9-inch pie crust

Maple Sugar Frosting (below)

Pour boiling water over rhubarb for 1 minute. Drain.

Mix together sugar, flour, beaten egg and cream. Mix with rhubarb and put in a prepared pie crust. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes and at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. When cool, top with maple sugar frosting.

Maple Sugar Frosting

1 cup maple syrup

1 egg white,

stiffly beaten

Boil maple syrup until it forms a thread from a spoon (232 degrees, if using a candy thermometer). Pour slowly into beaten egg white. Spread on pie.

-- Elizabeth Anderson