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Hello, I am a retired US Citizen living in Baguio City, Philippines.  Baguio City is on the island of Luzon, about 6 hours from Manila and 5000 feet up in the mountains of the Cordillera. 

I am totally new to cheese making and while I like cheese in general, it is my love of pizza that has brought me here.  I want to make a good mozzarella.  I hope to go on to other cheeses like provolone and gouda in the future, but I really lust after some fresh mozzarella on top of my pizza.  We make our own sauce(s) and have started learning to make sausages as well, though mostly simple Sweet Italian sausages and fennel sausage. 

I have mostly failures at this point, having only some very old rennet (way past the expiry date).  Even my first try at ricotta (using water buffalo milk) was a bit of a bust, as I noted in the questions/problems section of the forum.  But I don't mind a few failures along the whey.  Oops, bad joke, sorry.   

Hello Tatoosh in Philipine!

My family and I lived next door in Brunei for 5 years, on the coast, so 5000 ft sounds really nice!

Moz is tough, suggest reading lots of threads and posts in that board.

On rennet, you could mail order, our list of global stores is here, or ask a friend to bring some back from Stateside.

Have fun with your new adventure!

Hello, Tatoosh!

Kumusta ka diyan sa Baguio (How are you doing there in Baguio-for the non-Tagalog speaking members)?   I lived in the Philippines when I was younger (my dad was in the Air Force) & I'm fairly fluent in Tagalog as well as Visayan (immersion helps!).   I've only been to Baguio once, when I was younger, so I'm sure it's a lot different there now.   Our source of milk was always from the PX's, when I was younger the stores only carried the can-evaporated type or the powder kind.   I'm told there are some farmers that deliver fresh milk from cows as well as the carabaos, just never got any. 

I wish you luck in your cheesemaking.  I'm a newbie with this, so I'm just slowly inching my way into it...starting with the soft cheeses, though I will be jumping in (bravely, to my mind) this weekend with my first try at parmesan. 

Take care & have a good weekend!

Steff

PS.  Do you make the tocino-style sausages? 

Let me know if you are still interested in rennet.  I am in Mindanao and have loads of it.  I am also a retired Americano in search of decent pizza here.  I have had some success with barbequed pizza. 

Hi,
I'm a new cheesemaker too, so best of luck. One of our daughters-in-law comes from Baglio, and having heard her talk about it I'd love to visit some day. Her entire family emigrated over quite a long period to Perth, Australia, but they still have property in Balgio and return there frequently.
Margaret