HOW TO: Pit a Cherry without a Cherry-Pitter

I have a cherry pitter. Let me rephrase: D has a cherry pitter; I don't care for kitchen gadgets that do only one thing. But, it must be buried, because we couldn't find it this afternoon. And I needed 2 cups of fresh cherries pitted for a recipe I'm testing.

"Don't worry, Mom," said the Precise Kitchen Elf. "I read about this in my life's hacks book."
Your what?!
"The book about life hacks...in the kitchen hack chapter. I'll pit the cherries. Just give me a straw."
Okay.

Note: he used one of our stainless steel straws. But, just to be sure, he tested it with a paper straw as well. It worked fine. We didn't have any plastic straws to try.

Step One: Remove the stem and place the straw to the cherry where the stem was.

Step Two: Press the straw through the meat of the cherry while holding over a bowl for the pits.

Step Three: Pull the straw back through the cherry. It's pitted!

R whipped through 2 cups of cherries in no time flat. Wow. Who knew? I'm impressed. And I'm doubly happy because that straw now has two purposes!

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