See The Gritty Butter Sculpture

HARRISBURG, PA — Three of Pennsylvania's most iconic mascots are the focus of this year's butter sculpture and will be featured at the annual Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg.

The American Dairy Association North East, in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, recently revealed the recreation of three of the state’s most popular pro-sports mascots — Philadelphia Flyers’ Gritty, Philadelphia Eagles’ Swoop and Pittsburgh Steelers’ Steely McBeam.

The butter sculpture is on display in the Main Hall of the Farm Show, which runs from Jan. 4 through Jan. 11.

Artists Jim Victor and Marie Pelton of Conshohocken spent 14 days carving more than 1,000 pounds of donated Land O' Lakes butter.

"Every year, the butter sculpture is a best kept secret, which keeps people interested and excited - and it makes it fun for us, too," Victor said.

"We also enjoy knowing that we are helping to create sculptures that are entertaining, tell a story and pay tribute to the hard-working dairy farmers," Pelton said.

You can watch them construct the sculpture in a time-lapse video below:

The 30th annual butter sculpture's theme is "East Meets West at the Pennsylvania Farm Show."

Dairy farmers Tim Kurtz, from Kurtland Farms in the east, and Marie Canon, from Canon Dairy Farm in the west said the butter sculpture is a creative way to highlight the state’s dairy farm families, how hard they work and the nutritious product they produce for their communities.

Pennsylvania Lt. Governor John Fetterman, Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding and none other than Philadelphia Eagles mascot Swoop were on hand to unveil the sculpture, too.

Following the Farm Show, the butter will be moved to the Reinford Farm in Juniata County to be converted into renewable energy in the farm’s methane digester.

Half a million people are expected to visit the butter sculpture at the Farm Show.

See full details of the Farm Show online here.

The show is held at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center, 2300 N. Cameron St. in Harrisburg.