How to Tie a Knot in a Cherry Stem With Your Tongue

You might remember seeing this simple yet crowd-pleasing trick performed on the early '90s TV show Twin Peaks. It takes some practice to perfect but once you know how to do it, tying a cherry stem while it's inside your mouth can be a lot of fun at a party! 

Steps:

1. Select an appropriate stem. The longer the better, and the softer the better (maraschino cherries are good because they're already very soft).
   • Show the audience that it isn't in a knot already before putting it into your mouth.
   • Move the stem around in your mouth to increase its flexibility by softening it with your saliva. You can chew and bend it if this helps to soften it.
2. 
   Fold the stem in half around the tip of your tongue. The easiest way to do this is lengthwise, so that the folded stem lies along the length of your tongue, one end on the top of your tongue, one end on the bottom.
3. 
   Take the folded stem between your front teeth. Bite down gently until the two ends cross over, forming a loop with an X-shape crossover of the stem ends.
4. 
   Holding one end of the stem with your teeth, use the tip of your tongue to push the other end of the stem through the loop that you've made. Try using your teeth to rotate the looped stem toward the end you are trying to push through. This might take a few minutes, but it is possible, especially with practice!
5. 
   Take it out and display your knotted cherry stem!

Alternate Description

1. Hold one end with your teeth and then put the other end alongside the first end. This means that the stem folds like a hot dog.
2. Twist one tip of the stem with your tongue poking in the middle of the stem.
3. Bite and pull away your teeth. It should form a nice tight knot.

Magican's Method

Why try to do something hard when you can make it look hard?!

1. Obtain cherry stem and form it into a knot. To impress your friends even more, put two knots in it.
2. Put the stem between your cheek and your lower gum-line.
3. Find your mark and tell them that you can tie a knot in a cherry stem.
4. Put the second cherry stem in your mouth.
5. While keeping your mouth closed, put the new stem along the opposite gum-line where you have your pre-knotted stem.
6. Retrieve the pre-knotted stem and reveal it to your mark.

Tips

• 
  For an extra flourish, push the cherry stone through the knotted stem (brace the knotted stem against your front teeth and push the stone halfway through using the tip of your tongue). People invariably believe that you’ve actually tied the stem around the stone. Those poor, poor fools!
• Use the longest stem you can find, especially if you intend to push the stone through the stem.
• The cherry with stem attached can be placed in the mouth and eaten, retaining the stem and stone for the trick.

Warnings

• Be careful not to choke on your cherry stem or pit.
• Do not let children under 7 do this, as it is a choking hazard.
• May attract unwanted attention from people.

 

 

Growing Cherry Tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes are one of the most popular of salad garnishments and are also handy for tossing into wrapped sandwiches or as just a snack. They are small, tasty, and easy to grow indoors or out. Here are the basics of what you need to know about growing cherry tomoates.

Growing Conditions for Cherry Tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes, like most other tomato varieties, require direct sunlight (outdoors or in a window) and warm temperatures (70F or higher is best). They also require nutrient-rich soil, plenty of water, and some care. If you can meet the heat and light requirements, have access to good potting soil, and remember to water them often, you can easily grow cherry tomatoes.

How to Plant Cherry Tomatoes

When planting outdoors, cherry tomatoes should be planted in small groups (3-4 seeds per hole) at about three feet apart. When the sprouts come through the soil, thin the plants to one per position and when the plants get a few inches high, add a stake or training trellis to keep them upright.

If growing indoors, you’ll want to use the same planting method in pots about the size of a large coffee can (roughly a gallon). Tomatoes have fairly deep roots and need a lot of nutrition, so you’ll need enough soil to support that. Your tomatoes will need to be grown in direct sunlight once the sprouts appear and will require watering every other day once the plant is established. Again, supports or tomato cages will be needed.

Care of Cherry Tomatoes

Once the plants establish, care will mostly involve watering and adjusting the plants occasionally on their supports. Felt or other gardener’s ties to attach the plants to poles are most common and will need to be undone and re-attached as the plant grows through them. Most tomato varieties are fairly viney can be trained onto wire trellises as well.

Most cherry tomato plants are bushes and are meant to trail along the ground in nature (hence the supports). This means they’ll be top-heavy, so plan to not only provide support, but also to spend a little time trimming as the plant grows. Lower stems on the plant should be pinched or cut back to keep them from spreading and wasting plant energy. Upper branches will likely produce fruit on every other stem, but do not pinch or cut back the non-bearing limbs as they will contain the leaves needed to catch sunlight to grow the tomatoes.

Cherry Tomatoes Pests and Diseases

Most common tomato pests will also attack cherry tomato plants. They are also more susceptible to birds, who sometimes find the red cherries irresistible. Many growers spray their tomato plants liberally with soap-based insecticides (which are biodegradable and non-toxic) to keep mites, caterpillars, and other pests at bay.
Indoor growers will have few enemies to contend with, though over-watering or too-humid air could lead to mold on the undersides of leaves. This can be easily avoided by being careful about watering.

Harvesting Cherry Tomatoes

Tomatoes will begin to ripen after about two to three months, depending on growing conditions. They can be picked when they are almost entirely red and will not likely all ripen at the same time on all plants. Often, you can harvest two or even three times from one plant over a four month period.
Harvest the cherries by grasping them just above the stem where it enters the tomato and pushing upwards, at an angle from the stem. A natural break point is present, just as on full-sized tomatoes, and will snap off keeping the stem intact to the fruit. Cherry tomatoes should be handled gently.

Choosing Cherry Tomato Varieties

Best Cherry Tomato Varieties for the Garden
Nearly any type of cherry tomato variety is good for the garden. Be leery of those made for indoor growth, however, as they may not be as hardy in the rigors of outdoor life. Sun gold is probably the most common outdoor variety grown.

Best Varieties for Container Gardens
Any cherry tomato can be grown indoors. The most popular is the Sweet hundred variety, especially amongst hydroponics growers and others who don’t mind the wide bush this plant can become.

How to Tie a Knot in a Cherry Stem With Your Tongue

If you would like to earn your bragging rights and tie cherry stems into knots with your tongue, you must practice this ancient art. Follow these steps and you'll soon be inviting the envy and awe of an impressed audience. 

Things You'll Need

• Cherry with a stem

 

Instructions

1. Pick a cherry with the longest stem you can find, especially if you are trying this for the very first time. Eat the cherry or save it as a little reward for yourself after you've finished Step 7.

2. Chew on the stem awhile all the way up and down to soften it up a bit and make it more flexible.

3. Push your tongue on the middle of the stem to bend it into a "U" shape long ways on your tongue. Bite down on it to make it cross into a loop.

4. Hold the stem in place with your teeth at the cross.

5. Push on the end of the stem that is on the top of the cross downward from the tip of the stem while at the same time pushing the loop upward toward the stem with your bottom teeth.

6. Maneuver the knobby end of the stem through the loop and pull it through with your teeth.

7. Tighten the knot by pulling the stem out of your mouth from one end while holding the other end in your teeth.

Tips & Warnings

• Some people see this trick as erotic, so be careful who your audience is.

 

 

How to Grow a Cherry Tree from Seed or Pit

Growing a cherry tree will provide an abundance of cherries for preserves, pies, cobblers and as a garnish for cocktails. Cherries are loaded with vitamin A and C and are very nutritious. If you have always wanted to have your own cherry tree follow these tips to grow one easily from seed. 

Instructions:

1. Where to Grow Cherry Trees

First you must learn if a cherry tree will grow in your area. One way to discover this is to look around your neighborhood or ask someone you know. If you see or hear of cherry trees growing in your local area, then chances are you can successfully grow one too. Also, if you see cherry trees for sale at your local nursery, chances are good that cherry trees do indeed grow well in your zone.

If you want to look online to see if cherries grow in your area, visit the Arbor Day Foundation in the resource section below. Type in your zip code and the online tool will let you know if cherry trees grow well in your area.

2. Collecting Cherry Seeds and Pits

Collecting cherry pits is the fun part! Eat as many cherries as you can find when they are in season. Your best bet for finding cherry pits or seeds that will germinate is at local farmers markets. Storage practices make grocery store cherries unreliable. If you have a neighborhood tree those cherry pits and seeds should work well too. Unrefrigerated pits work best also. Seeds go through something called stratification each winter when they are naturally exposed to cold temperatures outdoors, before germinating in the spring. Exposing a cherry pit or seed to cold temperatures before eating it and then again before germinating the seed in the spring makes it a little less reliable.

Eat a few cherries. Rinse the pits from your favorite cherries. Put them in a sunny window to dry.

3. Germinating the Cherry Seed into a Tree

In the fall, gather up your cherry seeds and pits that you have collected in your window. Plant them outside in an area that you can keep an eye on regularly. I like to use my flower bed near my backdoor for germinating tree seeds, because I weed it regularly and the trees are not in danger of being overlooked and mowed over.

Plant several of them, as some pits may not sprout. They should be planted 2 inches deep and at least a foot apart. Mark the area where you planted the pits so that you know where to expect to see the cherry trees sprouting.

After you have planted the cherry pits and seeds, wait for nature to do it's work. The cherry seeds will go through a natural stratification process in the winter.

4 . Transplanting the Cherry Tree

In the spring, the cherry pits and seeds will start to sprout into a tree. Wait until the trees are 8 to 12 inches tall and then transplant them to the area you would like the trees to grow permanently. After you have transplanted the cherry tree, mulch well around it to prevent weeds and encourage moisture in the soil. Also, mark the tree location with a stake to prevent the tree from being walked on or mowed.