Is This The Largest Butter Lamb In Western New York?
Easter is over, but you may still have some butter leftover from your butter lamb. However, if your family used up all of the butter lamb at your Easter brunch, there is at least one family in Western New York who still has their butter lamb intact on the dinner table.
The family tradition for this one Western New York family started about 50 years ago in the mid-1970s. There was a guy, named Joe Garbatowicz, who stood about 5 inches under 7 feet, and he would order these massive butter lambs from the Broadway Market.
Every year, the butter lamb would get slightly bigger.
Anyone who came to the Garbatowicz’s family house over the years absolutely had to take a picture with the legendary seasonal butter lamb.
It was a tradition! Not just for the family who went above and beyond in housing a huge butter lamb, but it was a tradition to see the lamb at the Garbatowicz house.
However, Joe, who started the tradition, passed away just years after it started. The butter lamb tradition and the motivation to do it was lost for a while – until about 15 years ago when his son, Jomark, and his sister, Alanna, brought back the tradition on their own.
They have kids of their own now, and they changed up the tradition a little bit. Instead of ordering butter lambs that are massive, the family makes their own lamb every year!
This year, the Garbatowicz family used 80 sticks of butter to create a 20 lb butter lamb!
It’s a whole family event, too. They create the sheepskin together, sculpt the lamb out themselves, and use candy (jelly beans, licorice) for the eyes and nose.
After the lamb is completed, their church will bless it, and people will come over to take pictures with it.
And don’t worry – after Easter, the butter lamb gets entirely eaten.
See the original story here from our friends at Channel 4.