That's for sure. By the time you have something halfway edible as cheese, a whole village could have died of starvation. Horrible finicky stuff to make, even with modern refrigeration.

Not quite -- fresh cheeses can be made in a matter of hours, and quite dependably. Obviously they don't last as long as the harder kinds, but they're still more stable than milk. Here's one process:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Paneer-(Indian-Cheese)

Yeah, but unless you use them like paneer (ie in curries) they taste bland and icky. But I'm a blue cheese or vintage hard cheese man myself.

I always thought the first cheese was made accidentally by storing milk in animal stomachs (which was a natural sort of Rennet). That, and the motion of being carried while riding/moving was enought to create a bsaic cheese/yoghurt.

yhogurt is pretty easy and good for you, too =D