I have a bunch of ripening cherries, as usual, Sungold and Black Cherry. I was a couple jars short of a full pot full to can last week so I did one pint of Sungold cherries. They are certainly more labor intensive, but not as bad as I thought. I also had a pint of regular tomatoes that ended up with 1 inch of headspace instead of 1/2" because I ran out of tomatoes. Is that ok safety wise? What is the reason for the recommended 1/2 inch head space? Is it just the minimum or crucial? Any reason I can't top off a jar with cherries next time to make a full jar? Do they taste as good canned later as regular tomatoes? Because of the labor intensive nature of the cherries and I was experimenting, I just used a spider tool and scooped up about 20 cherries at a time, put them in the boiling water, them scooped them all out at one time and into the ice water. Then I just squeezed each one into a bowl and they slipped right out of the skins. Still more work than regular tomatoes but no need to cut a cross into each one or peel with a knife, so not as bad as I thought. Just wondering if a jar of these will taste as good for a quick pasta sauce with a little fresh basil come winter as my large heirloom tomates? Because I cook for one the smaller jar would be fine.

Oh yeah, I also learned that Anna's Noir makes funky looking canned tomatoes. But I bet they will taste great anyway. :)