Butter Sculpture Unveiled at New York State Fair

By DEBRA J. GROOM

This year’s New York State Fair butter sculpture is telling everyone to love milk because it’s real.
 

New York Dairy Princess Reegan Domagala with butter sculpture

“Milk. Love What’s Real” is the theme of the 51th sculpture — one of the most visited sites at the entire New York State Fair.
 
In the center of the Dairy Products Building across from Chevy Court, the sculpture is made from 800 pounds of butter made at O-AT-KA Milk Products in Batavia. 

This year’s masterpiece created by artists Jim Victor and Marie Pelton of Conshohocken, Pa., shows a grandfather and child dunking cookies in milk and a young couple sharing a milkshake, illustrating how the love for real dairy connects many cherished moments in life.
 
“When we create meals, we create memories and real dairy is there,” said Joel Riehlman of Venture Farms in Fabius, Onondaga County. “From the ice cream at a child’s birthday party to our cheese pizza on Friday to the milk in our lattes every morning, milk plays an important role in our everyday lives.”
 

One side of the New York State Fair butter sculpture

Also on hand Aug. 20 to unveil the new butter sculpture was Reegan Domagala of Lewis County, the New York State Dairy Princess. One of the key parts of her job is to represent the state’s dairy industry at the New York State Fair and she was smiling and greeting visitors, dignitaries and media throughout the butter sculpture event.
 
After the fair is over on Labor Day, the sculpture will be taken apart by Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners and transported to Noblehurst Farms in Linwood, Livingston County, where it will be recycled in a methane digester to create electricity and liquid fertilizer for crops.
 
The American Dairy Association North East is in charge of the butter sculpture each year. The sculpture is sponsored this year by Wegman supermarkets.
 
The New York State Fair runs from Wednesday, Aug. 21 through Labor Day.

State Fair Butter Sculpture Celebrates Yearround Production of Milk

Milk is one of the only farm products produced yearround in New York state and this year's New York State Fair butter sculpture pays homage to that fact.

The sculpture was unveiled Wednesday morning in the Dairy Products Building at the New York State Fairgrounds in Geddes. 

The fair opens its 12-day run Thursday, Aug. 22.

Made of 800 pounds of unsalted butter from O-At-Ka Milk in Batavia, the sculpture shows children in the four seasons of New York, eating and drinking dairy products while a cow Statue of Liberty holding an ice cream torch and wheel of cheese looks down on them all.

Also shown is Niagara Falls, city skyscrapers and majestic mountains such as the Adirondacks and Catskills. The four children are an ice skater drinking hot chocolate, a boy going to school eating some cheese, a girl in a bathing suit eating yogurt and a boy with flowers drinking a smoothie.

"It was a lot of work," said artist Jim Victor, of Conshohocken, Pa. "I don't know if it was the hardest I've ever done, but it was one of the most difficult."

Victor and Marie Pelton, also of Conshohocken, have created the State Fair's sculpture since 2003. This year's creation is the 45th annual butter sculpture at the state fair.