Centuries ago, and probably still in some rural areas, the day after a storm was pie-day, the day on which all the apples and pears that had been blown down by the wind were gathered and turned into pies, pastries, and jams. Because it was the wind that sent them tumbling to earth, these apple and pears were called windfall, a word that eventually came to mean unexpected blessing because the fallen fruit, though slightly bruised, did not have to be painstakingly plucked from branches twenty feet in the air.