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By ROBB MURRAY, The Free Press of Mankato


      MANKATO, Minn. (AP) - Butter. It drips off our corn cobs,
yellows our popcorn at the multiplex, melts mouth wateringly on our
French toast and pancakes.


      But at no time is our love affair with butter more lovably
apparent than each year at the end of summer, when a hundred
thousand people gather in St. Paul for the great Minnesota get
together.


      And no woman is more responsible for it than Linda Christensen,
who for 40 years had been the artist responsible for taking
90-pound butter blocks and sculpting then into visions of yellow
beauty.


      Christensen came to New Ulm recently to visit the Associated
Milk Producers Inc. plant, the state's largest butter factory. She
came to see the place where, since 1933, the butter for the famous
butter busts comes from.


      The butter sculpture has been one of the most enduring, and
endearing, traditions at the State Fair. Young women compete to be
one of the 12 princesses to come to the fair. Girls must live or
work on a dairy farm.


      Then, in the days just before the fair starts, the winner is
crowned Princess Kay of the Milky Way, and her likeness is carved
on opening day at the fair. On the remaining days, the likenesses
of the other princesses are carved.


      Over the years, Christensen has carved more than 450 sculptures
and whittled her way through roughly 32,000 pounds of butter. Along
the way, she's picked up some butter wisdom.


      She says salted butter carves much nicer than unsalted butter.
Freezing butter prior to carving doesn't work; it flakes away a
manner unbecoming a dairy princess. Sometimes there are air pockets
in the butter, although AMPI President and CEO Ed Welch said the
company's head butter guy, John Russell, does his best to make the
butter as air-free as he can.


      And sometimes, well ... mistakes are made.


      "One year, as I was turning the sculpture at the very end, I
turned it to show (the girl) and the stand came loose from the old
floor and the sculpture went right over on its face," Christensen
said.


      For the most part, though, carving butter has been a smooth
experience, one she relishes and has no plans to give up.


      "In Minnesota, I'm somebody for 12 days," she said. "I enjoy
the attention."


      Getting to know the girls, she said, has made being the butter
sculptor worth it as well.


      "One of the things I did not foresee is how involved I would
become with not only the dairy industry community but these
communities that support the princess contestants," Christensen
said.


      Current Princess Kay of the Milky Way Katie Miron said the
butter busts are like trophies. She called her work "amazing,"
and said sitting with Christensen while the artist is at work is a
treat for any of the girls who get the honor.


      "What it comes down to is Linda, who until (recently had) never
been to a dairy farm, has believed in the dairy industry, has
learned about the dairy industry for 40 years," Miron said.
"She's listened to girl after girl ramble on about her favorite
cow or her favorite thing to do on the farm, and she shares with us
her 40 years of experience."


      Former Princess Kay of the Milky Way Sarah Schmidt now works for
AMPI. She brought her butter head in from Hutchinson, where her
mother stores it and the two other butter heads earned by her two
sisters.


      "If you're wondering what butter looks like when it's nine
years old, here you go," she said. "It's holding up very, very
nicely."


      She recalled her day in the booth with Christensen. With
thousands of people stopping by the booth to gaze upon the princess
and the butter, she said the Christensen experience was a soothing
one.


      "Linda had a name for it," Schmidt said. "It's called `butter
booth hypnosis.' The booth slowly turns around and it's cool and
you're comfortable and Linda is calmly sculpting you in butter and
pretty soon you fall asleep - and I was definitely that princess.
But we had a lot of fun I will always remember."

Gallery

Mary Zahurones crowned Princess Kay of the Milky Way

Arts and Culture

No woman is more responsible for Minnesotans' love affair with butter than Linda Christensen,
who for 40 years had been carving butter sculptures at the Minnesota State Fair.

State Fair butter sculptor enjoys her annual 12 days of fame

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