I know it’s about the end of berry/cherry season and I almost didn’t get my freezer stocked this year. I barely made it, luckily. I know I would be very sad in a couple months if that happened. I had to share a great find with you. I have a new best friend for cherry season.
I couldn’t resist buying a big box of cherries at the farm market but I had promised myself I would buy a new cherry pitter before I bought cherries again. I found the Progressive Cherry-It Pitter at my local Bed Bath & Beyond store and liked that it pitted 4 at once. My old hand held pitter mashed the cherries and was excruciating on the hands. I have bad wrists from working in restaurants and those things are awful on them. I was hoping for just a little improvement even.
In just an hour or so I had pitted over 20 lbs of cherries and my hand didn’t hurt at all. While Progressive boasts that it contains all splatter, I did find that a little got on the counter, but clean up was NOTHING compared to before. And it takes up almost no room.
Let me show you how it works: Here you can see the metal x shaped blades that push the pits into the case below.
You choose either the small or large holes on the tray for size of cherries you have:
Then place up to 4 cherries in the tray:
Push cover down to puncture
And you can see only a small x is made in the cherries, they aren’t mashed at all because it’s spring loaded.
The pits drop down into the tray below, and there’s a very small hole on the underside of the cherries where the pit is pushed out. I dry the cherries whole, or lay out on a silicone mat lined tray and freeze overnight to flash freeze. Then I put them in ziplocks or freezer containers. These are my favorite. Since I freeze alot of berries I use the half gallon size for them.
This method also works well for raspberries, blackberries, etc.
This way they won’t freeze together in a big clump and you can measure out exactly what you want when you want them. I’ve also noticed they don’t get freezer burned as easily (or at all) when flash frozen.
I use these for smoothies, milkshakes, muffins, baked goods, you name it!
