Munster

Munster , Munster-géromé, or (Alsatian) Minschterkaas, is a soft cheese with a strong taste and aroma, made mainly from milk first produced in the Vosges, between the Alsace, Lorraine and Franche-Comté regions in France. The name "Munster" is derived from the Alsatian town of Munster, where, among Vosgian abbeys and monasteries, the cheese was conserved and matured in monks' cellars. "Géromé", a variant from munster, comes from the Vosgien patois pronunciation of the town of Gérardmer, located on the Lorrain side of the Vosges mountains, where it originates. This cheese originated in the Admodiation, an area on the top of the Vosgian mountains of France, named "Chaumes" or "Les grandes Chaumes" (comitatus Calvomontensis). Calvomontensis is the Latin for a mountaintop without woods.[citation needed] As early as 1371, and possibly before, these territories were occupied by cattle herds driven by men, called "marcaires" (from the Alsatian "Malker", Milker in English), pastured there between May and September. When the herds returned to their valleys, the cattle herdsmen first paid the fees and tithes to the religious and political owners of the summer pastures or simply financiers of these migrations. During feudal times these owners possessed all goods, living creatures, rights of pasture and cattle. Those who herded were known as serfs.[citation needed]

Source: Wikipedia