​​Never Remove The Stems From Fresh Cherries. Here's Why

There is a saying that "life is just a bowl of cherries" which is the title of a song standard sung over the years by famous crooners like Judy Garland and Doris Day, and equates cherries with life's pleasures and enjoyment. A bowl of cherries at their peak is a true treat and will not usually last long as their bouncy and sweet flesh is hard to resist. But, how do you pick the freshest ones?

When picking cherries, you are looking for vibrant, firm, unblemished fruit with the fewest amount of nicks. Then there are the telltale stems. The stems themselves are an indicator of the fruit's freshness. Ideally, you are seeking bright green stems that have not yet turned brown. The green of the stems is a signal that the cherries have been recently picked. Leaving the stems on the cherries helps to keep them in prime condition. Once removed, they create a bit of an opening at the top of each piece of fruit that can allow air, water, or dirt to enter and thus cause the fruit to spoil more quickly.

Once you've sourced your precious stem-on beauties, the question becomes how to store them for optimum freshness. There is plenty of lore about which fruits should be refrigerated and which shouldn't, but cherries seem to fare best when they are indeed kept in the fridge. There is also research that suggests that cherries keep best when they haven't been exposed to moisture, so save the washing for right before eating rather than when you first buy them. Another final tip on cherry storage is to put them into the fridge on a plate or even a flat sheet tray, rather than in a bowl, as storing them so they are not mounded up reduces bruising and the chance for more splitting, which also hastens spoiling.

Beyond popping fresh cherries like candy, you may be inspired to use your cherry bounty in a tempting pie, and a pro move is to par-boil your cherries to prevent a soggy bottom crust. No one wants a soggy bottom. To prep your cherries for a pie, you can also try the hack of using chopsticks to easily remove the pits. Before tossing the pits in the trash, try infusing them in cream to amp up the cherry profile with a cherry-accented whipped cream for your pie. Cherry on cherry. Life is good.