Staff Report

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

“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 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 took the black-and-white photographs.

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

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