The butter sculpture. The milkshakes. The potato doughnuts.

It’s all coming back this January, in person, in Harrisburg, Pa.

After reports surfaced Sept. 15 that the 2022 Pennsylvania Farm Show would be in person in early January, Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding made it official that the show, Jan. 8-15, would be returning live.

Last year’s show was, in effect, canceled except for a virtual component and drive-thru vendors who sold food in the Pennsylvania Farm Show’s parking lot.

“This event, as we know it, sort of marks time. That means in January, it is always Farm Show,” Redding said during a visit to a Cambria County farm Sept. 16.

And unlike last year, vaccines, rapid COVID-19 testing and masking are available for visitors and exhibitors who attend the show.

A virtual component featuring live streaming of ducklings hatching, beehives, the Pennsylvania Farm Show Trail and more will also be held, Redding says.

Questions remain, though, on exact measures show organizers will take to control crowds, which can be huge especially on the book-end weekends of the show. Shannon Powers, spokesperson for the department of agriculture, wrote in an email: “The department has carefully reviewed the floor plan for the show and taken steps to widen aisles and reduce points of congestion throughout the complex.”

There is no word yet on whether the FFA’s annual midwinter meeting will be held. Anyone with questions regarding changes to livestock shows can visit farmshow.pa.gov and click on “Exhibitor information.”

“Harvesting More” will be the Farm Show’s official theme.