The Irish Examiner this morning carried an interested story of how makers of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese use their ripening cheese as collateral for loans to keep their business financially sound. Parmigiano Reggiano is an extra-hard internal bacterially ripened variety from northern Italy with controlled designation of origin and one of the longest ripening times (>2 years) of any common cheese. This long ripening time would impose unacceptably high inventory costs on a factory were it not for a system such as this. If only we could use our unripe housing stock similarly to kick-start the Irish economy...
