Provolone cheese comes from UTAH

As we all know, provolone cheese comes from Utah, because by Federal law in order to be labeled as genuine provolone cheese it has to come out of one of the cheese factories in Provo.

Or so I told a woman one day at the deli.

"When the Mormons were working their way west, they had to winter in Wisconsin. The farmers there taught them the cheese making trade. When they arrived in Utah, they found wild cattle running around that were escapees from the long cattle drives. They started milking them and making cheese. Because the vegetation was different in Utah than in Wisconsin, the milk was different, so the cheese was different. Provolone cheese comes from Provo Utah."

"Really?" she asked.

"Yes, and what's interesting is the way it was marketed in New York," I added.

"How's that?" she asked.

"Ever see any of the 'Godfather' movies?"

She said that she had.

"When the first of the Italian mob guys came to power, they opened little olive oil and cheese importing businesses. They discovered Provolone cheese and it was similar too the stuff they made back in the Old Country. They had it shipped to Genoa, New York, a suburb of Manhattan. That way they could say it came from Genoa and they could pass it off to the Italian immigrants as coming from Italy."

"Really? I can't wait to tell my garden club! Who would have ever thought"

Her son, standing nearby just shook his head. I'll bet he didn't tell her the truth, though.

The smirk he gave me was priceless.