Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Works for Me Wednesday

This week, I am going to share something that would have worked beautifully if I had one.

A cherry pitter.
Sounds simple enough.
If you have one, that is.
If you don't have one, and you decide to buy an ENORMOUS bag of fresh cherries, your fingers and nails and everything you touch will be purple. For many days.

I am from Florida. I have lived here all my life. I know citrus fruit and various types of berries. I do not eat fresh cherries very often. So when I went to the grocery store this weekend, and my hubby - who is from Pittsburgh - suggested I pick up some cherries, I did not think anything about it. For a couple of days, we ate very sweet cherries, and saved some pits, because my darling seven-year-old son wants to plant them to see if they will grow. Hubby is doubtful, but we are still going to try. Anyway.

I decided that the cherries needed to be spread out and have room to breathe because I suspected some of them were going bad at the bottom of the bag. Which they were. Then my husband asked me if I would make a pie, because we would never be able to eat all those cherries. So I said, "Sure!" (Actually I made a crisp. And it was very good. It is all gone now.)

Then I began to deal with the cherries.
I pitted about one cup of cherries.
Then I called my mother.

"Do you have a cherry pitter?" I asked.
"No, your sister-in-law does, though," she replied.
"But she's in Virginia," I said.
"Yes, so I guess you can't borrow it," my mother said.

Then I called my sister.

"Do you have a cherry pitter?" I asked.
"No," she replied.
"Oh. Okay," I said.

So I pitted FOUR MORE CUPS of cherries. Then I explained to my husband how much he should love me because of all my labor. And then I explained to him how I now understood why cherry pie filling is expensive. And why dried cherries are expensive. And that I knew why people invented a cherry pitter. The same reason they invented the cotton gin.

Because cherry pitters work much faster than my knife and purple fingers.
Cherry pitters work for me.
What works for you?

5 comments:

Muthering Heights said...

Oh man, I hope you can get one soon!

ames said...

I've so been there! And now I have a pitter because of it. My dad even has a super spring-loaded one that can plunge the pits out of a gallon of cherries in less than a minute, and it even has a little bucket they fall into. Guess that's what happens when you have *four* pie cherry trees!

I have some rainier cherry pits saved to try and grow a tree, I'll let you know if I find a method for sprouting them that works!

Tara @ Feels Like Home said...

Oh, man. The Pampered Chef sells a cherry pitter, and they'll send it right to your house. :) It definitely makes things easier.

On a related note, my mother-in-law saw me use mine and said "Hey, what's that?" She's been making cherry pies your way for 70 years. And we all live in PA.

Kristen said...

I have never pitted a cherry. In.My.Life. I bow to your greatness!

GiBee said...

Oh, yeah -- I did the exact same thing, and wished for a cherry pitter the entire time!!!