h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In the town of Würchwitz, in the eastern German state of Sachsen-Anhalt, there is a stone memorial. Carved into it is a little recess, where cheese is put daily for passers-by and visitors to take for free.

1. The memorial is there in honour of ___________ ?

2. What's all this free cheese about then?

A couple of klaxons are involved, but have fun!

1. The memorial is there in honour of ___________ ?

julius cheezer

The town of Würchwitz is a cheese makeing center right

Something to do with the mold - a particular fungi or something identified by a biochemist and copyrighted to the town?

St Ivel, the patron saint of processed cheese.

Well, it's not really, in the way that you would say Sheffield was once a steel-making centre or something like that. But if the town could be said to have a claim to fame it would probably be the cheese. It's to Würchwitz as Poirot is to Belgium, in other words.

Not mold, Clive, but you're on the right track.

A memorial "in honour of"...

Is it in honour of something other than a person, then?

It is, yes. I didn't think that would be worked out so quickly!

It's the way you worded it.

Maggots or mites perhaps

Or some sort of bacterium that turns the cheese a funny colour. I had a feeling this was going to be gross.

Whatever its bound to be as ripe as a tramps socks, they have to give it away hence the referance to free cheese in the question

The memorial is a huge mousetrap with a bit of cheese on it. It's free, but as you reach out your hand a big bar swings over and smashes your wrist.

Correct with the mites, Bob.

Damn, that was quick. The monument is a statue of a cheese mite, which goes to make the town's famous Milbenkäse (mite cheese).

To make the delicacy Quark (kind of cream cheese) is put in a box with some flour and millions of Tyroglyphus casei (cheese mites). Here it sits for at least three months, but up to a year, going through changes in colour from orange to black. The cheese is eaten complete with mites running all over it and a healthy layer of their waste, and the statue is there to honour the fallen who provide the tasty snack.

The process nearly died out in the 70s, but one old woman who knew how it was done was consulted, and a revival began. (Perhaps she was just having a laugh? )

Oh, and the advertising slogan is a beaut:

"Der lebendigste Käse der Welt!"

"The world's liveliest cheese!"

Have you tried this stuff?

It sounds like something you would find in the bottom of a dustbin

Or at the foot of a memorial.

No wonder people leave it at the memorial rather than eat it...

But then it seems to be a cheese made without rennet. So, um, good for the calves?