Here's a little bit of cheese history: During the Middle Ages, religious organizations, because they owned a lot of land, became large agricultural centers. As a result, they produced cheese, which was especially important to them to have available on the days they couldn't eat meat (I remember as a child not being able to eat meat on Fridays!). Many of today's well-known cheeses, such as Wensleydale, Pont l'Eveque, and Tete de Moine, came from these long-ago monasteries and convents.