[Cheese] new to cheese making

[mila bulic]

I am new to  cheese making and new to this group. I have been reading the
threads and have found that there is a great deal of diversity with respect
to experience in this group so I suspect I can learn a lot.

I was not interested in making my own cheese before but since I have moved
to northern Chile I have discovered that if I want cheese I am going to have
to make it myself. We only have two kinds here--white and white--and I can
barely tell the difference (one is gauda and the other is montecuso)....
since I am a bit of a rat and love variety in my cheese, making cheese
myself seems to be a good idea. Well, it is a good idea until you start
trying to make it with all the wrong ingredients.

There is a lot of information on the web on the subject and I have read a
lot of it but I still have a lot of questions so I will begin to ask them--I
didn't bother before because I did not have a source of fresh milk; living
in the Atacama Desert is not exactly good grazing land, hahaha, and there
are only two small, fertile valleys where it would be possible to get the
milk--otherwise we only have UHT milk and I learned the hard way that you
can't make cheese with that.

Anyway, the first of my questions, before I waste any more of the culture
that I purchased in the States, has to do with cultures. I can make the
culture known as MMA myself as well as the thermophyllic culture--but how
can I culture the MMW? It is an entirely different bacteria strain. Should I
just buy some from the States and then try to culture it on my own? If so,
how? If someone knows the answer to this first, of many questions to come, I
would appreciate your help.

Thanks a lot!
Mila
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