Butter Cow Steals the Show at the 2015 Iowa State Fair
Posted on August 15, 2015
The 2015 Iowa State Fair is in full swing this weekend, with politicians shaking hands and eating the kind of food that makes their personal trainers shudder with horror. Jeb Bush has lost a lot of weigh on the paleo plan, but blew his diet totally yesterday by eating a fried Snickers bar dusted with powdered sugar which we understood had no less than one million simple carbs.
Donald Trump arrived by helicopter, gave a speech, then gave kids rides in the helicopter that has his name blazoned across the side. But the real excitement at the Iowa State Fair is in the Agriculture Building in a special 40 degree cooler where the Butter Cow sculpture draws huge crowds every year.
This is the 9th year that Sarah Pratt of West Des Moines, Iowa, has been the as the official butter cow sculptor. Butter is her medium. She says it's a lot like clay after it's been worked a bit. Sarah apprenticed with legendary butter carver Norma Duffy Lyon since she was 13 years old. Now she has taken up the mantle of Chief Butter Carver. Her work is flawless. She always does an additional sculpture each year. This year she honored the game Monopoly as it is the game's 80th anniversary.
Sarah gave an in-depth interview to ABC News, which we found most entertaining (fine, we're obsessed with the annual Butter Cow). She says that they don't waste butter. The butter is reused each year. After many years something happened with the refrigeration system in 2009, and that load of butter had to be scrapped. But the same butter has been used each year since 2009. Sarah says older butter is easier to work with, as it has a clay consistency.
This year's sculpture is made of 600 pounds of butter which is molded on top of a wood and steel mesh armiture. It took Sarah five full days to sculpt the cow, which really does look amazing. We fell sure even Donald Trump will find it so. After all, he has promised to come see the famous Butter Cow.