Why is this the answer?

The answer is cheese because this clever riddle tells us the whole story of how a cheesemaker creates this delicious food. It uses tricky, fun word pictures to describe every step of the process. Let's break down the first line: "Not born, but from a Mother's body drawn." Think about where cheese comes from. It is not a living baby animal that is born. Instead, cheese is made using milk. That milk is collected, or "drawn," from a mother animal, such as a cow, a sheep, or a goat. This is the very first step in making a block of cheese. Next, the riddle mentions, "I hang until half of me is gone." After the milk is collected, the cheesemaker adds a few special things that cause the milk to split into two parts: a watery liquid called whey and a solid part called curds. To make the cheese, the cheesemaker only wants the curds, so the watery whey has to be drained away. The curds are often placed in a cloth bag or a mold and hung up. As the liquid whey drips out, the curds dry up and shrink, making the block of cheese much smaller. This process of losing the liquid is what the riddle means when it says "half of me is gone." After all the liquid is gone, the riddle says, "I sleep in a cave until I grow old." For many of the best and most flavorful kinds of cheese, the aging process begins. The cheese is moved into a cool, dark room called an aging cellar. In the old days, people would use real caves for this storage. The cheese "sleeps" there for many weeks or even years. This resting period is how the cheese "grows old" and develops a deep, rich flavor that we love. Finally, we have, "Then valued for my hardened gold." When the cheese is finally ready, it is usually firm, or "hardened," and often has a beautiful yellow or golden color. Because cheese is such a wonderful and important food, it is considered very valuable. It is a treasure, like a piece of "hardened gold" that you can eat! Every single clever clue in the riddle perfectly describes the long, careful, and interesting life of cheese.