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United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

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Wednesday, May 21, 2003

A view of the cherry stoner from its "ugly side" (the official photograph may be seen here). I put the spare gasket in the pit basket so you can visualize how it is held in place in the slot. The pit basket doesn't show up very well in the official photo, but it does here. The loader has room for more than a cup of fruit, so reloads will be infrequent. It also has an indented central area, to simplify feeding, extending for nearly its entire length. Some other cherry stoners have no prep area, so you have to load cherries one at a time. Of course, the stems will still have to be removed one at a time, but that can be done after the fruit is washed and put into a colander. 4:02:20 AM    comment []

This is the secret of the cherry stoner. The cherries come to rest on a rubber gasket inside a concave hole in the slanting chute. The broad X-shape of hole matches that on the plunger (also concave, to grip the surface of the cherry - the plunger is being held near the bottom of its stroke to show detail). The cherry stone is forced through the hole into a plastic container beneath. When the next cherry is loaded from the tray above, the pitted one slides down the chute to an awaiting bowl. There is an additional rubber gasket included. They load through a slot in the side of the chute and are held in place by the edge of the plastic pit container. I haven't seen it in action, but this appears to be an ingenious design, very well thought out. 3:23:30 AM    comment []