Ben Davis

Ben Davis has been grown on San Juan Island since at least 1853, and was reported as planted on Orcas and Shaw as early as 1891. It is still growing in at least two ancient orchards on San Juan Island, including at the Westcott Bay Oyster Farm, as part of an orchard that was planted before 1853 (and scions are available through our annual scion exchange and grafting workshops on Lopez, Orcas, and San Juan). Once one of the most popular commercial varieties in the United States, Ben Davis was the basis of many orchards from Virginia to Arkansas, thriving in warmer conditions than the equally popular Baldwin. It probably originated in Kentucky around 1799. While is is now far less common, one of its seedlings, Cortland, is still widely grown. Ben Davis are large round or round conic apples with bright red stripes and waxy skin (common in good keeping apples).  They ripen late and keep very well.

You can view watercolors of Ben Davis in the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection.