Benscoter hikes down an eastern Washington hill toward a small apple tree. A former FBI agent, he now searches for old apple trees, trying to find lost varieties. From reading old newspaper advertisements and nursery catalogs, he knows that apple varieties, now thought to be extinct, were sold in this area long ago. He’s hoping that among Washington’s ancient, abandoned orchards, some of the lost varieties still survive. The tree he’s interested in grows alone on a hillside near
