If you like eating cherries, you can collect a lot of cherry stones over the course of a summer. These can be further processed into a valuable remedy, the warming or cooling cherry stone pillow. To do this, however, the kernels must be thoroughly cleaned and then dried. You can find out how to do this in this article.
How to dry cherry stones?
The best way to dry cherry pits is in the oven: spread the clean pits on a baking tray, set the oven to 50 degrees and leave the door slightly open with a wooden spoon so that moisture can escape. Dry the kernels for about 6 hours.
Clean cores
After enjoying, there is usually still a little pulp hanging from the cherry stones. This can be removed as follows:
- First wash the fruit seeds under clean water.
- You can remove larger pieces of fruit with a vegetable brush.
- Put the cherry stones in a large pot of water.
- Bring to the boil and simmer until the pulp has completely separated.
- Pour everything into a sieve and wash off the residue under running water.
Drying cherry stones
To dry, you can place the fruit seeds on cloths in the sun. It's quicker in the oven:
- Spread the cherry stones on a baking tray.
- Make sure that these are not on top of each other, otherwise they will dry unevenly.
- Switch oven to 50 degrees
- Place a wooden spoon in the door so that it stays slightly open. This allows the moisture to escape.
- Dry the cherry stones for about six hours.
Drying in a warm place in the house also works well. Place the kernels on newspaper and turn the fruit kernels over and over again. Drying time is approximately two weeks.
Sew your own cherry stone pillow
For this you need:
- Not too loosely woven cotton fabric in the desired pillow size
- Matching sewing thread
- Sewing machine and sewing needle
- Scissors
- 300 to 500 dried cherry stones
Production
- Cut the fabric to a size of 20 x 30 centimeters.
- If you prefer a round pillow, use a plate as a template and cut the fabric accordingly.
- Place fabric pieces right sides together.
- Sew together on three sides with a seam allowance of 0.75 centimeters.
- For a round pillow, leave a turning opening of about 10 centimeters open.
- Turn the pillowcase right side out.
- Fill in enough cherry stones so that the pillow remains cuddly.
- Close the turning opening by hand using the ladder stitch.
Tip
Make sure not to heat the cherry stone pillow too much in the oven. Leave the pillow in the tube at 150 degrees for a maximum of 12 minutes. Alternatively, you can put it in the microwave at a maximum of 600 watts for 1 to 2 minutes.
