MONTPELIER – A two-year collaboration involving an agricultural writer and a farmer / photographer has produced a museum-ready exhibit on organic farming in Vermont.

The special exhibit – “Plowing Old Ground: Vermont’s Organic Farming Pioneers” – is a mix of words and pictures compiled by Susan Harlow and John Nopper that will be on display at the Vermont History Museum on State Street in Montpelier starting next month.

The March 16 opening, which will be held from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., will include a reception and short talks by the exhibit’s creators.

Harlow is the woman behind the narratives produced from kitchen table interviews with people who helped get the organic ball rolling here in Vermont. Nopper snapped the black and white photographs to accompany them.

Together they tell the stories of six working Vermont farms and their farmers. Two central Vermont farmers and their farms – Joey Klein of Littlewood Farm in Plainfield and Bruce Kaufman of Riverside Farm in Hardwick – are highlighted in the exhibit that also features Vermont’s first officially certified organic farmer, Howard Prussack of High Meadows Farm in Putney.

Jack and Anne Lazor of Butterworks Farm in Westfield, Paul Harlow of Harlow Farm in Westminster and Jake and Liz Guest of Killdeer Farm, Norwich are also featured in the exhibit as are images and comments by writer and organic farming advocate Samuel Kaymen.