Apples no one has ever tasted are still out in the wild. Dave Benscoter, a retired FBI agent, has spent a decade searching for these 100-year-old heirlooms.
Andrew Zaleski is a journalist based near Washington, D.C. He writes about science, technology, and business, and you can find more of his work at andrewzaleski.com.
DAVE BENSCOTER: For 24 years, I was in federal law enforcement.
KING: He has worked for the FBI and the IRS. These days, though, Benscoter calls himself a fruit detective.
BENSCOTER: I search for lost and rare apples.
SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST: He is the founder of the Lost Apple Project. It recently helped find seven types of apples that were thought to be extinct. They were rediscovered in old orchards in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. They taste great, we hear, and have great names like the Ivanhoe, the Iowa Flat and the Steptoe.
BENSCOTER: Today, there are at least 17,000 named varieties of apples in North America.