When Ray Tobiassen and his wife Maryann bought their home on Middlebrook Farm Road several years ago, they were attracted not just by the French Normandy style of the house, but the extensive apple orchard that graces the front lawn. Tobiassen moved here from Norway as a young boy, and his wife is of Norwegian descent; they loved the European feel of the house and the grounds. “It’s unusual for Wilton,” he notes. Because the property was once part of Middlebrook Farm, one would think the apple trees had been there for years. However, it turns out that both the house and the apple orchard date only as far back as the 1970s. According to Ray, the original owner had worked for IBM in France, and lived in a French Normandy-style home there. When he was transferred back to the states, and settled in Wilton, he hired an architect to design a house reminiscent of the home he lived in abroad. It was built in 1973, and the orchard—88 apple trees in all, although eight have died over the years—was planted the same year. The trees stand like guards, in evenly spaced rows in the front yard, obscuring the view of the house from the road. When he was starting his career as a builder in town, Tobiassen remembers driving past the property. “The trees were just three feet tall back then,” he says, and then adds, “I’ve always loved this house.”

When the Tobiassens, who are only the second owners, moved in, the original owner gave them a handwritten schematic chart of the orchard that identifies the seven varieties of apples—Jonathans, McIntosh, Staymans, Cortlands, Macouns, Delicious, and Granny Smiths—planted there. Asked if he can identify the different varieties by sight, Tobiassen laughs and says, “I sometimes still have to consult the chart.” He keeps the original schematic, now dog-eared and yellowed, along with extra copies, in a file in his office.

Maintaining the orchard requires quite a bit of work. The trees need to be pruned every January or February to prevent them from becoming overgrown. Tobiassen does the work himself, with help from two landscapers he hires. It generally takes the three men three days to do all the trees. “The deer help too,” he notes. “They keep the bottom of the trees trimmed.” The original owner used to give the tree clippings to Adrian Offinger, who owns property on Chestnut Hill Road and maintains a farm stand during the summer. Offinger uses the clippings—some of which are up to three feet long—to make stakes for his tomato plants. Several months after moving in, Tobiassen received a phone call from Offinger asking if he could come by and gather up the clippings; Tobiassen was happy to continue the arrangement.

In addition to trimming the trees, Tobiassen treats them for bugs and insects. In early spring, he brings out his tractor and sprayer, and circling each tree, applies a pre-emergent oil that helps get rid of any insects that might be hiding in the tree bark. Once the leaves begin to bud, he sprays the trees every two to three weeks to protect them from pests. “I don’t use organic sprays, but the ones I buy are probably less toxic than the sprays commercial orchard growers use,” he notes.

So what do the Tobiassens do with all the apples from 80 trees? “My wife makes apple pies, apple crisp, and apple sauce, and we give a lot of apples away. Some of our friends come over every fall to pick their own apples. I’ll give them the schematic so they know which variety they’re picking.”

What are Tobiassen’s favorite apples? “I like Jonathans and Staymans for eating off the tree, and Granny Smiths for pies, of course,” he says.