200 Years of Indiana Dairy History in Cheese

200 Years of Indiana Dairy History in Cheese

The big cheese sculpture is back at the Indiana State Fair. In keeping with the Bicentennial theme, it represents 200 years of dairy history in Indiana. What started as 2 industrial sized blocks of cheese, donated by Pace Dairy has been turned into a story of the dairy industry in Indiana from 1816 to 2016. Cheese artist Sarah Kaufmann and 2 assistants spent over 200 hours creating the masterpiece, “We start with the pioneers bringing their family dairy cows to Indiana and then traced the innovation that has occurred over the years.”   Also represented is the nutrition education, milk promotion, and animal care that has been the hallmark of the industry.

Kaufmann, who has been carving cheese at the Indiana state Fair since 2006, put some innovation into this year’s display with vibrant colors, like red and blue, “I make a cheese putty and add candy coloring.  This adds depth to the orange and white background of the cheese.”

Kaufmann interacts with the public as she carves the cheese, answering questions about the dairy industry and dairy products. Now that the sculpture is finished, it has become one of the more popular selfie stations on the fairgrounds, “Everyone wants to get their selfie with the cheese.”  Just grab a dairy selfie at various dairy locations (Dairy Bar, Cheese Sculpture in the Ag Hort building, and/or with the dairy cows) between Friday, August 5 and Sunday, August 21, hashtag it #SayBIGCheese, and follow @INDairy on Instagram! The contest ends at 5:00 pm on August 21.

The cheese sculpture is made possible by Indiana dairy farmers and the American Dairy Association of Indiana.

You can see the big cheese in the NW corner of the Ag Hort building through the end of the Fair. You can also watch the special video presentation at our web site.