Prepping strawberries easier

There are some parts of strawberries most people just don’t like to eat. The leaves are easy to pinch and pull off, but the stem is more tedious. Here’s an unusual tool to make prepping strawberries easier.

An unexpected “tool”

I used to just take my paring knife and cut around the stem, but then on Erin Chase’s Vonnie app (read about that here) I saw she used a straw to simply push the stem out. Not having a straw at home, I had to wait a bit to try it and that’s when I found everyday straws are just too thin and bendy.

Then I remembered having one of those lucite cups with a “permanent” straw. I hate cleaning those because it’s so hard to get down in there. But I had kept this one…and THIS straw was the very one I needed!

How to prep those strawberries

Wash your strawberries, then pinch off the leaves. Holding a strawberry in one hand, line up the end of the straw over the stem and push straight through to the tip of the berry. You need to be gentle yet firm enough to get through the “meat” of the berry. It does take a little practice so be patient.

Remember to remove the stem from the straw before attacking the next berry. If you forget and they get jammed up in there tight, a kebab skewer pushed from the opposite end can help clean them out.

Finish your prep as you wish

Now you can simply cut the berries in half (in the same direction as the hole) or make slices. Check out the freezing technique I use here or simply add these to your fruit salad or decorate the top of a special event cake!

And it works for cherries too!

I took this to my cherries and found it would remove the pits. This requires a little more finesse as you have to kinda feel around for that pit and push it through slowly.

Keep your hand or fingers covering the tip to keep from flinging the pit and cherry juice everywhere. Also, these pits hold onto the cherry like the pit of a cling peach…the “meat” of the fruit is attached. You don’t want to miss any of that good fruit and if you push too fast, that end will pop off.

Again, after pitting you can cut the cherries in half and use all kinds of ways. I’ve even frozen them with the same method as strawberries and used in overnight oats! But if you’re just eating them plain, fishing the pit out in your mouth is still the most expedient method.

An unlikely tool but it works!

Once I find something that works, I always want to see if it would work for something else. Almost nothing in my kitchen does just ONE thing! What unlikely tool (or odd use for a tool) have you found in YOUR kitchen? Share it with me in the comments below!