Pit Cherries without a Pitter

I got a great deal on cherries and wanted to freeze some for winter months. I discovered how to pit them without a pitter!

Wash them, pull off their stem and either hold them (wear gloves or you'll have discolored hands and nails!) OR place them on top of a small mouthed bottle (stem direction pointing UP) and plunge the thicker end of a chop stick down the middle. The pit should pop right into the bottle, leaving you withe a pitted cherry!

Bonus Tip: I ended up with a few bottles with juicy cherry pits in them and decided to add some maple syrup to infuse the sweet cherry flavor into the maple syrup for my waffles or even to drizzle onto my yogurt! I will use this quickly but will refrigerate the syrup.