Lost and found! The hidden wealth of island orchards

Submitted by Russel Barsh, Director of Kwiaht.

Kwiaht and the Fruit Genetics Program at Washington State University are unraveling the identity and parentage of apples from the island’s oldest orchards, its backyards and roadside ditches with support from the San Juan Island Community Foundation, the Millsdavis Foundation and island donors. Results thus far have been surprising.

Domestic apple trees were planted on San Juan Island as early as the 1850s. Parts of the Hudson Bay Company’s Bellevue Farm orchard still exist, and the trees continue to bear fruit. At Westcott Bay, a handful of trees remain from another HBC-era orchard that helped feed British Marines during the international boundary dispute. American settlers arriving in the wake of the Civil War planted orchards to “prove up