The Association was founded in 1989 to safeguard and promote the material and cultural heritage of the local peasant civilisation and, in particular, to provide permanent quarters for the "Exhibition of tools of peasant life", which, since 1978, had been held in connection with the annual Zootechnical Fair, displaying tools owned by the inhabitants of Capannori. The Association acts as custodian of the implements and organises their display in the Exhibition. It organises many other initiatives too, also in collaboration with local authorities, such as educational trips for schools, including visits to the olive-oil mills of Compitese and to water-driven mills, millraces, icehouses and wash-houses. The Association publishes the series "I Quaderni", and has produced three educational videos: "Harvesting and the water-driven mill", "Olive pressing" and "Maize: fertilising and watering".

The collection is made up of agricultural machines (the biggest ones are displayed outdoors, partially covered metal roofing), among them ploughs, both wooden and iron, seeders, water wheels, irrigation pumps, threshing machines and other implements linked to rural life and work. The objects are datable starting from around 1920. The display is organised in five thematic sectors: kitchen, wine-cellar, hayloft and oven, bedroom, and weaving, with replicas of typical settings of peasant life in the first half of the 20th century.