Inspired by conversations on the FOOD52 Hotline, we're sharing tips and tricks that make navigating all of our kitchens easier and more fun. Today, we're showing you how to pit cherries without a cherry pitter.

It's cherry season! Time for cherry pie, a clafoutis, or a few boozy sour cherries garnishing a cocktail. All of those things are great if you happen to have a cherry pitter but if you don't, you're in for a bit of work that results in stained hands.

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Sure, a pitter is an easy accessory to pick up but not everyone likes to buy single-purpose kitchen tools. And why bother when you can easily hack one? Today we're sharing an easy and gadget-free way to hack a cherry pitter. If you've got an empty beer bottle and a chop stick, you can pit a cherry.

All you need is an empty bottle with a small mouth. A beer bottle is perfect -- we're just using this little cutie because, well, it's cute.

Gently hold the cherry and press the chop stick through it to push the pit out the other side.

Bullseye.

The bottle collects the pits, keeping the whole process nice and neat.

And there you have it. Who needs a cherry pitter anyway?

If you've got any other gadget-free tricks for pitting cherries, share them with us in the comments!

Photos by James Ransom