Internet tips

You know how you see those videos on Facebook or elsewhere on the internet that tell you they have some kind of amazing kitchen or food prep hacks that will change your life?
Or maybe they say you've been doing certain things wrong all your life?
Yeah, I confess to watching some of those.
Occasionally I think, "That's dumb"
Or sometimes I think, "I already do that! I'm so awesome. Obviously!"
Or perhaps, "Hmmm maybe I'll try that one day"

Well one such hack that I saw was to de-stem a strawberry using a straw.
I though it was dumb.
Yes, you save some of the strawberry by not using a knife (although in their video, the idiot who is cutting off the stem cuts the strawberry nearly in half), but it looked like a hassle.
Plus, will a straw really hold up over time? They aren't that strong.
And I don't keep straws around the house.

But this week I had the opportunity to de-stem 16 pound of strawberries and I thought that perhaps this was a good time to try out the straw idea.  I realized that I had some heavy duty straws that came with some reusable cups.  You know, the cups that seem to proliferate in your cupboards and drive you nuts because when you actually want to use one you can't find the lid or the straw that goes with it?  yeah those.

Anyway, it works!

It's pretty darn easy and smooth.  I do recommend the heavy duty straw but only because that is what I used and it worked well and never wore out or bent or anything.  Maybe a normal straw would be just as good...

If you aim just right from the bottom of the strawberry, the top just pops right off.
If your aim is off a bit, maybe only part of the top will pop off, leaving a few leaves still sitting there.  The good news is that its super easy to just reposition with the straw still inside the strawberry and pop the rest of the leaves right off. Or grab them with your fingers and pull them off if you feel so inclined.

I did have a couple of times that I was close but not quite centered and it left a tiny bit of the core there.  I just left it.  As long as the leaves were gone, I figured it was edible.

I'm actually quite impressed with myself for trying something I saw online.
Now I have another good use for those straws even if I lose the cup or the lid!
Win-Win!

Also, we had some amazing strawberry shortcake. Oh yeah.