HEBRON – When Jan and Dennis Barker moved to their newly purchased apple orchard in November, they knew they had a lot of work ahead of them.

The neat rows had not changed, but the trees were denuded and forlorn, the unshorn grass stood about 4 feet tall.

“They looked terrible,” Jan said of the 300 trees on the property.

Perhaps that was to be expected of any collection of trees going into the winter season. However, the orchard hadn’t been maintained in five years, and none of the trees had been pruned in that time. The initial recommendation from a state specialist was to cut them all down and start anew.

Now, one year after they purchased the property, the same trees are bowed low with fruit. red delicious, yellow delicious, MacIntosh and Cortland apples await their futures in pies and crisps.

“Everyone’s just blown away that we’ve already got apples,” Dennis said.

The couple, who married in 2003, started their relationship states apart. Dennis worked in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., as a lubrication engineer with Exxon Mobil, while Jan lived in Mechanic Falls. Last August, Dennis moved to Mechanic Falls. The contract for the orchard was signed within two weeks.

“It’s a place we’ve always liked,” Dennis said of the orchard on Merrill Hill Road.

Aside from the difficulties associated with the five-year absence of tree care, neither Dennis nor Jan had experience in apple growing. Jan said they began to learn the process of caring for the trees and bringing the orchard back to life.

“It’s very educational,” she said.

With assistance from friends and specialists, the couple began to revivify the rows of apple trees. They hired workers to help them prune the trees during their dormant winter phase. They cut the grass back to more manageable levels. And they fertilized each of the trees once spring rolled around. Aside from a few dead trees, none were cut down.

However, it seemed that infusing new life into the orchard would not necessarily bring about a bumper crop of fruit in the first year.

“We were told by a lot of people, ‘You won’t get any apples,'” Jan said.

Dennis said they were told that apple trees experience a “June drop.” If the trees are unhealthy, they shed the fruit growing on them around that month. And the orchard’s trees, neglected for half a decade, seemed a prime candidate for such aborted growth.

Another friend, 80-year-old Lewis Sargent, begged to differ. Sargent said the couple would have more apples than they could pick.

“He’s the only one who told us we’d get apples,” Dennis said.

However, the couple decided to go with the majority. They even planned a vacation to Florida. But in July, they noticed that the apples that had come in were clinging tenaciously to their branches.

Canceling the trip, Dennis and Jan turned their focus to preparing the orchard for business.

“It was a wake-up call,” Jan said. “We knew we really had to get organized.”

While Sept. 18 is the target date established by the state to begin picking apples, the actual ideal time to begin picking fluctuates with the weather. The couple hopes to open the orchard on Sept. 10, and has heard rumors that the picking season may begin around that date.

Dennis and Jan are naming their new business Hemingway Orchards, after Jan’s late grandfather Clifford Hemingway, a descendant of author Ernest Hemingway. The emblem of the business will be modeled after one of their trees, which has an apple growing directly from the trunk.

“We’re just trying to make it a fun place for people to come in the fall,” Jan said.

The business will focus on letting people pick their own apples, though it may also sell pre-picked fruit and deliver to civic organizations such as churches and nursing homes. In addition, the couple has planted several vegetables and blueberry bushes and plans to put in a strawberry bed.

Dennis also plans to offer a 20 percent discount for senior citizens.

“They always gave to us when we were kids,” he said. “Maybe it’s time to give back.”

Dennis, who also owns White Mountain Tree Services, plans to continue his engineering career, while Jan will work at the orchard on more of a full-time basis.

Currently, Hemingway Orchards shows signs of transition. Piles of trimmings and sawed up apple wood lie on the edges of the property, and the early season Lodi apples are already dropping off their branches. The couple plans to do some expansion on the site, including constructing a barn for cold apple storage and a cider press that can produce 50 to 60 gallons a day.

But although the couple is still preparing the orchard for its opening, the hardest work is behind them.

“For the most part, it’s just watching them grow,” said Dennis.