7 Reasons There's a Bottle of Tart Cherry in My Work Truck

1There's still something left after quitting time

My boy is still little. He doesn't care that I carried bundles of shingles up a ladder all day. At five-thirty he's standing in the yard with two gloves, and he wants to play catch.

For a lot of years I'd tell him "tomorrow, bud." Tomorrow came around a lot. That's the part of this work nobody warns you about: the job gets done, and the family gets whatever's left over.

Orchard Tart Cherry is one way I look after the body that does the work. Tart cherry supports joint comfort and muscle recovery, and it's been part of my nights for a while now. Most evenings lately, the answer is "go grab your glove."

2Down the ladder without the groan

Cherrypure® Tart Cherry Fruit Extract, 750 mg

You know the sound. Last trip down the ladder at the end of the day, and some old-timer groans on every rung. On my crew, that old-timer was me.

Here's what got my attention. In a 2015 study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, researchers gave 23 strength-trained men the same freeze-dried CherryPURE tart cherry powder that's in our capsules, 480 mg a day for 10 days. Then they put them through 10 sets of 10 back squats. Twenty-four hours later, the cherry group rated their quad soreness significantly lower than the placebo group did. The study was supported by CherryPURE's maker.

Ten sets of heavy squats is about the closest the research gets to a day of hauling bundles. A serving of ours has 750 mg. Give it a few weeks of nights in a row, then pay attention to that last trip down the ladder.

3Ready for Monday, every week, for years

Anybody can show up fresh after a long weekend. The trick is showing up ready on Monday, then Tuesday, then every week for the next fifteen years. You look after your body the way you'd look after a good truck: a little at a time, every day, no skipping.

Tart cherry is a daily habit too. Most folks notice their nights first, often in the first week. The mornings, and the day after a hard day, usually come around somewhere between two and six weeks. So give it six weeks before you decide anything.

One of my guys asked how he'd even know it was doing something. I told him what a lot of reviewers say: you notice it most when you run out.

“I wasn't sure I noticed a difference until I ran out of it... I'm going back to taking this since it seems to be a great benefit.”

Natalie M., Verified Buyer

4Stay the guy the crew counts on

Every crew has one. He's first on the job, he knows where everything is, and when something goes sideways, everybody looks at him. I've been that guy a long time, and I'd like to keep being him.

Nobody counts on the guy moving slow at seven in the morning. So I keep the basics simple: water, a real lunch, decent sleep and two capsules of tart cherry every night. Nothing fancy, just the stuff that keeps a working body working.

Word gets around a job site. Two of my young guys keep a bottle now, and our foreman's wife ordered one for him after she heard me talking about it at the Fourth of July cookout.

“Thanks to a recommendation from my brother, I'm sleeping better at night and helping my sore knee. Win-win!”

Kathryn M., Verified Buyer

5Real cherry, and two capsules before bed

I like a label I can read without squinting. This one is plain: tart cherry from USA-grown Montmorency orchards, plus a little celery seed and bilberry. Two capsules is the whole routine.

The cherry is the skin, where the deep red color lives. The farmers keep heat away from the fruit the whole way, and it's gently freeze-dried. It takes about 50 pounds of cherries to make one pound of that powder.

Hippie Farms suggests two capsules at night, within an hour of bed. Plenty of folks take theirs at other times or split them across the day, and that works too. I keep one bottle on the nightstand and a spare in the truck, so I never run out.

“I am taking 2 capsules at bedtime and have noticed better sleep...”

Debra R.

6Sleep that charges you back up for tomorrow

When your day starts at five, the night is your recharge. And tired to the bone doesn't always mean sleeping well. Plenty of nights you can lie there listening to the ceiling fan.

Tart cherries naturally carry a little melatonin, just the amount nature puts there, with nothing added. That's part of why so many folks reach for tart cherry to support restful sleep.

For a lot of people, nights are the first thing they notice, often within the first week. That was true for me. Most mornings now I'm up before the alarm, and it feels like I actually slept.

“I'm a retired over-the-road driver of 42 yrs. Nothing helped me sleep. I read some reviews and thought, what do I have to lose. Well, I'm sleeping better now...”

Javier J., Verified Buyer

7A word to the wives who do the buying

I'll be straight with you. I didn't buy my first bottle. My wife, Linda, did. No speech, no pamphlet on the pillow. She set it on the nightstand next to a glass of water and said, "Humor me."

If you're the one keeping the household running, you already know how it goes. He'll take care of the truck, the tools and everybody else before he gets around to himself. So it makes sense that you're the one reading this. A lot of our reviews come from wives who picked it up for their husbands.

My only advice: keep it easy. Leave the bottle where he'll see it at bedtime, and let him tell you in a few weeks what he notices. You've got 99 days to see how it goes, with a full refund if you're not happy.

“So far my husband loves it, the sore joints are a lot better.”

Donna M., Verified Buyer