Indiana State Fair's giant cheese sculpture is beloved tradition
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Mooove over, Iowa. Your 600-pound butter cow ain't got nothing on the Indiana State Fair's cheese sculpture.
The big cheddar: Nearly 1,500 pounds of cheese anchor the starting point for this 20-year tradition.
- From a bevy of bovine beauties to an IndyCar, each year's sculpture is different.
- They're designed around the fair's theme by the one constant: sculptor Sarah Kaufmann, also known as "The Cheese Lady."
What they're chewing: Kaufmann says she was born an artist, but it took more than 40 years before she unwrapped the medium she was meant to work in.
- "Cheddar is perfect," Kaufmann tells Axios. "It's dense and consistent. And it tastes great."
- Working with a medium that doubles as a snack helps, she says, because she and her team are working through the night in a giant walk-in cooler to finish their sculpture in under a week.
Cutting the news: This year's creation, a mix of white and yellow cheddar, is an ode to both baseball and the tradition's two-decade milestone.
- In addition to baseballs, a bat and glove, it features Buttercup, mascot of the Indiana Dairy Association, sculpting Kaufmann out of cheese.
- Colors are made by squishing white cheddar shavings into a cheese putty and mixing them with food coloring.
- So the lifelike blueberries you see? The giant ice cream? The lettering? It's all cheese.
Between the slices: An annual highlight for many fairgoers, the cheese sculpture is a novel way to teach people about the work of Indiana's dairy farmers, says Jenni Browning, CEO of the American Dairy Association of Indiana.
- All of the cheese, which is donated by Kroger, is made in the state.
- "People are so disconnected from the farm now," Browning says. "This is a fun way to learn."
If you go-uda: The cheese sculpture will be on display in the Horticulture Building through the end of the fair on Aug. 23.