An apple tree, a remnant of an old orchard, at Steptoe Butte State Park in Spokane, Wash, May 3, 2017. Apples are where food meets history, variety hunters say, and a community has risen up around the pursuit of them. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

Amit Dhingra, right, an associate professor of horticulture, and Nathan Tarlyn, a lab manager, in an apple greenhouse at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash., May 4, 2017. Apples are where food meets history, variety hunters say, and a community has risen up around the pursuit of them. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

The grafted beginnings of Arkansas Beauty trees in a nursery at a farm in Pullman, Wash., May 3, 2017. The trees are the remnants of an apple orchard planted in the 1890s by Robert Burns. Apples are where food meets history, variety hunters say, and a community has risen up around the pursuit of them. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

The remnant of an old apple orchard, among wheat fields in Steptoe Butte State Park. in Spokane, Wash., May 3, 2017. The orchard was planted in the 1890s by Robert Burns. An estimated 17,000 varieties of apples were grown in North America over the centuries, and about 13,000 are lost. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

David Benscoter, a former F.B.I. investigator, prunes apple trees to stimulate new shoots at Steptoe Butte State Park in Spokane, Wash, May 3, 2017. The trees are the remnants of an apple orchard planted in the 1890s by Robert Burns. An estimated 17,000 varieties of apples were grown in North America over the centuries, and about 13,000 are lost. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)