Glossary · Orchard
Windfall
Definition
Fruit that has fallen from the tree before deliberate harvest. In cider orchards windfalls are a normal part of the crop; the question is how long they have lain and in what condition.
- Subject
- Orchard
In more detail
Traditional practice let cider fruit fall and gathered it from the ground, sometimes after weeks of mellowing. Modern practice distinguishes sharply between fresh drops and fruit that has lain long enough to rot, because rotten fruit carries Penicillium expansum and with it patulin, a mycotoxin regulated in juice. Bruised and mouldy fruit also raises the mould and acetic burden going into the mill.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Production
Windfall management
Deciding which fruit that has reached the orchard floor can be used, and getting the rest out of the crop before it becomes a patulin problem.
Production
Patulin control
Managing the mycotoxin produced by rot fungi in damaged apples, which is controlled by fruit selection rather than by any treatment applied to juice.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Fruit
Brown rot
A fungal rot of apples and pears, chiefly *Monilinia fructigena*, producing an expanding brown lesion with concentric rings of buff spore pustules. Affected fruit is unfit for milling.
Chemistry
Patulin
A mycotoxin produced chiefly by *Penicillium expansum* in rotting apples, regulated in apple juice and apple products because of its toxicity. Sorting out rotten fruit is the principal control.
Orchard
Orchard floor
The ground layer beneath the trees, and its management: permanent grazed grassland in traditional orchards, mown alleys with herbicide strips in intensive ones.
Fruit
Sweating
Holding harvested fruit in a heap or a shed for days or weeks before milling, so that starch converts to sugar, flesh softens and moisture is lost.
Orchard
Fruit sorting
Removing rotten, mouldy and foreign material from harvested fruit before milling, by hand on a table or by flotation and mechanical inspection at scale.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
A Somerset Pomona: The Cider Apples of Somerset
Liz Copas, The Dovecote Press, 2001. ISBN 9781874336877 · reference work · bibliographic record verified, not opened 2026-08-25
Bibliographic record verified on 2026-08-25 against Open Library: Liz Copas, The Dovecote Press, 2001, ISBN 9781874336877. The author was Long Ashton’s cider pomologist, which is why this work is registered for Somerset cultivar identity at all — it is the nearest thing to a successor to the station’s own descriptions. No copy was opened. Not digitised in any open collection.
European Food Safety Authority scientific opinions
EFSA · regulator · retrieved 2026-08-24
Registered for the food-safety questions cider genuinely raises: patulin in juice from rotten fruit, sulphite sensitivity, and the toxicology behind additive limits.
Cider and perry production technical training material
Peter Mitchell / Cider and Perry Academy · reference work · registered as competent for this subject
Searched again on 2026-08-25 and it remains the one printed source here that a bibliographic check cannot fix, because it is not a published work with an edition. It is course material issued to participants of a training programme, so there is no catalogue record to verify, no ISBN, and no lawful public copy. Its state stays `registered` for that reason rather than through inattention.