In 2012, a retired FBI agent began searching for ‘lost’ apples; more than a decade later, his mission has helped rediscover 30 forgotten varieties across the Pacific Northwest
Retirement from the FBI gave Washington native Dave Benscoter plenty of time on his hands in 2012. Little did he know that a routine day of yard work would eventually lead him on a more than decade-long quest to rediscover apples that had all but vanished from the Pacific Northwest.Benscoter was helping a fellow parishioner from his church with some yard work when he noticed something unusual about the apple trees in her orchard. The varieties looked unlike any apples he had encountered before.“So I gave her a call, and I said, ‘Do you know what kind of apple trees are in your orchard?’” Benscoter recalled during an appearance on the Evergreen Thumb podcast last November.The woman could identify some of the trees. “And she said, ‘Well, I know the very top ones were named Yellow Transparent. They’re the very first apple that ripens in the year, in July.’”Another row contained Wealthy apples, an older variety notable for being the first apple ever bred in the United States. But beyond those, the identity of the remaining trees remained a mystery.“But she didn’t know the rest of the apples,” Benscoter said. “So I jumped online, and I just basically started going down rabbit holes.”
From FBI agent to ‘apple detective’
A retirement hobby became a decade-long quest to bring historic apples back from the brink. (Photo: Whitman County Historical Society)
That internet search soon developed into an unlikely obsession. Benscoter began researching apple varieties that had once been cultivated across the Pacific Northwest but were increasingly difficult to find. He searched through nature studies, family recipes, county fair newspapers and other historical records, looking for clues that could lead him to what enthusiasts call “lost apples.”His search eventually brought him together with Joanie Cooper and Sean Shepherd of Oregon’s Temperate Orchard Conservancy. The two, who Benscoter describes as “apple identification experts,” helped analyze the DNA of unusual specimens and determine their identities.“The first year we found one — it was the Fall Jenneting,” Benscoter said. “Now we have found 30 once-lost varieties.”The discoveries did not stop there. Along with his friend E.J. Brandt, Benscoter created the Lost Apple Project, turning their retirement years into a mission to locate and preserve historic apple trees.Since 2012, the two have searched eastern Washington, western Idaho and northern Oregon for apple trees dating back to before 1920.
Preserving apples that history nearly forgot
The Lost Apple Project is not simply about finding unusual fruit. The nonprofit also works to ensure that rediscovered varieties survive for future generations.Brandt and Benscoter search for rare trees, collect apple specimens during the fall and have them identified. During winter, they return to the orchards to graft branches and propagate the varieties, helping grow new “heritage” trees.Their discoveries have included varieties with names as unusual as the apples themselves, including the Streaked Pippin, Sary Sinap and Nero.But one particular discovery has remained especially memorable for Benscoter because of the personal connection behind it.He recalled a farmer in Arkansas who had spent years hoping to find a Kittageskee apple, a variety that had once been grown in the state but had disappeared.“10 years ago, he was going to be retiring soon, and his one regret was that he had spent his whole life hoping to come across the Kittageskee [apple] that was grown in Arkansas, and unfortunately, he’d never found it,” Benscoter said.Then, roughly two years later, the search produced an unexpected breakthrough. Benscoter and his team found Kittageskee apples in southern Idaho.“The Lost Apple Project has members down in the Boise area, and somebody picked those apples and sent them in. I know it made him incredibly happy,” Benscoter said.“It was an apple that he thought he’d never be able to taste, and so that kind of stands out for me.”For Benscoter, what began as curiosity during a day of post-retirement yard work has grown into a long-running conservation effort. His journey from FBI agent to apple hunter has helped bring forgotten varieties back into the spotlight, and, in some cases, back onto people’s tables.
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