Thoughts on Stel's Meulen after being home for almost two weeks

I arrived back home two weeks ago this upcoming Monday.  It has been an adjustment being back here in the US. The events of the past three months have been the start of a monumental life change. Part of that change is my current work as volunteer miller for Stel's Meulen, a windmill built to mill grain into flour in 1851. 

Another thing in my life which dates from the 1850's is the house I just bought. We are not certain of the date the house was built, but it is very early in Vermont's history. The town I'm living in got it's Royal Charter in to be a town in 1763. This means that my house, if it is from the 1850's could have been witnessed by a human being who was alive for both events. 

Brick part is from the 1850's and the wood part from the 1890's

If I find out that the mill and the house were built in the same year that would be cool!

Anyhow. Stel's Meulen is fully operational. It has one grinding stone couple (two stones make a couple). 

This image shows the internal workings of a grain mill.  Stel's Meulen has only one millstone couple. This image shows two. It also shows two moments in the operation of a mill.

• The left, where the mill stone and is connected to the mill's power wheel (het spoorwiel) and
• The right, which shows the top stone (loper in Dutch) being lifted to allow for cleaning of the stones for hygenic reasons or to sharpen the top stone

Those interested in an exhaustive discussion on how this all works, gear ratios, angular velocities, types of stone used, type of carving of the ridges on the stones...we can get into all of that. But that is later and much more in depth.

  This image shows the mill stones of Stel's Meulen. You can see the curved shape of the mill crane in the upper middle of the picture. The "kuip" or "hoop" is wooden sides of the mill stone which keeps the flour inside of the couple stone assembly. Here you can see it is open and the "loper" or runner (the top mill stone which turns) is visible. During normal operation this would be closed with another wooden part of the "kuip".   This "kuip" is made up of four parts. The entire assembly can be taken apart for cleaning, lifting the runner stone for sharpening, etc. 

Stel's Meulen hasn't milled any flour in years, but this will soon change. I have plans to start milling grain there within a year, and hopefully early in that year.

I spoke with one of the instructors at MSMOG (Molen Stichting Midden en Oost Groningen) about milling grain. He said that the mill is all ready to do this and grain is easy to find. The issue, he explained, was that there is noone to take the flour. In order for the flour to be usable by people or animals it needs to be certified as hygenic by the Dutch version of the US Food and Drug Administration (De Nederlands Voedsel- en Warenauthoriteit or NVWA). These are the people who come and make sure that you are making something that is not going to make people sick.

I want to have their stamp of approval. I was warned that this would require that I clean the mill stones and other parts of the milling assemblies each time I was there.  "That's fine with me," I said. "That is what the mill is supposed to do and I plan to have it making flour the way it should."

The miller (Lex van der Gaag) was happy to hear that I am so resolute. We discussed setting up a meeting (virtually for me of course) where we discuss what this would take, involving the Henk Klopping, the other miller instructor and the Board of Directors of the Association (MSMOG). 

We'll have to see how this all works out.

A mill like this would be able to grind about 150 kg of grain into flour per hour (330 lbs)!!! 

It does take quite a bit of time to clean up once you are done, but if that is the requirement to be allowed to make flour with the mill the I am down with that!

  This is where the flour comes down from the floor above (stone floor/steenzolder). Once it has been ground between the mill stones it is pushed to a hole in the bottom of the hoop assembly (kuip) by a piece of leather called the "jager". Jagen is an interesting word. Kind of like driver. It literally means 'to hunt', but that meaning has expanded over the centuries to include 'to push forward' and even 'to egg on'.  It also means 'to drive' as in driving cattle.  In this case we use the meaning 'to push'. This piece of leather which is attached to the top mill stone (de loper) and sweeps the inside of the kuip (hoop assembly) pushing the freshly ground flour to a hole.   This hole feeds into the flour pipe (meelpijp). You can see the meelpijp (prounounced mail-pipe) in the image above. It has a red piece of paper attached to it.  

The flour shoots down this wooden chute and lands in the slanted wooden holder called the meelbak (meal box - prounounced mailbok).  Here the miller has the opportunity to feel the flour for heat and roughness before it goes into a bag. Once it is in the bag it is ready to go to the baker or to people's homes to be baked into bread.

One of the main jobs for the miller, in order to get flour of a good quality is to ensure that the mill stones are the proper distance from one another. Too close and the grain is heated up by the process and begins to bake, ruining the flour. Too far away and the flour is too grainy, not suitable for eating as flour or the products made with flour.

This requires constant attention, as the distance between the stones is also a function of the speed at which the mill is turning. In this sense, the miller is operating a clutch to manage the quality of the flour, not by adjusting the speed of the stones...which is set by the speed the mill is pushed by the wind, but rather by adjusting the space between the stones. 

The mechanics of how this is done is fascinating, but I'll leave that for another blog. 

The Dutch are very much a bread culture. The whole 'gluten-free' fad is not very popular there. You can find lots of gluten-free stuff, but it isn't like that because of a fad diet. There are just many products which historically are not made with wheat flour. Roggebrood or rye bread, is a heavy bread made only with rye and no wheat flour. This is a completely gluten-free bread which dates back to medieval times.

Well. That is the post for this time. 

See you next time.

PS. I am working on setting up guided master tours of Dutch windmills. The Dutch used windmills from the 1300's through to the 1950's as the driving force of their industries. There are over 50 things that mills were used for and many different types of mills. Participants in these tours will get a special, insider look at different types of mills and see how they work. At the end of the week-long tour the participants will get an opportunity to work for a few days on Stel's Meulen, learning how to make flour from grain. How cool is that!?!

Windmills or molens of meulens

Trip to the Netherlands July 2017

Bloemendal, Noord Holland 24July17

This trip to the Netherlands is part of a yearly journey. Though I am an American, my wife was born and grew up in Groningen, a city in the northeast of the country. When we were first married we lived here in the Netherlands. Our children were born here and grew up here for the first six to nine years (depending on which kid we are talking about). 

Our annual journey has a rhythm which is familiar and aspects which are new each time, as with anything. Time changes some things but leaves others alone.  Visiting family and friends, renewing bonds and creating new ones. 

There are quite a few changes in our lives as we come again to the low lands. My mother passed away a little less than two months ago. This has meant that there are quiet moments of reflection and sometimes sadness mixed in to our regular jaunts. I often find myself "remembering" to call her and say hi, but catch myself and realize that there is no-one waiting to hear from me there, as has always been the case. It is the normal way of things, an elderly mother passing yet there are still consequences.

Windmills:

Among the many things we are doing this trip, the main theme of this trip is Windmills. To be honest many of my trips here have windmills as a theme, but this trip in particular is about windmills.

For those of you who don't know me or my journey with these magnificent and majestic machines of yore I'll include a short introduction to my connection to them.

I am a big fan of history and historical buildings. During my ten years as a resident of the Netherlands I got into the history of the place and the people. I started reading books on the past.

To make a short story long, I spent three years of Saturday's at the above pictured sawmill, De Eenhoorn (The Unicorn) in Haarlem (Noord Holland).  

Just before I moved back to the US in 2010 I passed my miller's exam and became a Certified Dutch Windmiller (Gediplomeerde Molenaar).  Unfortunately, I also moved to the US, where there isn't a windmill within 500 miles!  

I was expecting to spend the rest of my life having studied and passed the test to be a windmiller without having a mill to spend time running.

This all changed this past Spring when my monther-in-law found an article in the local paper (Het Dagblad van het Noorden, Groningen, NL).   This news article described how there were windmills in the east of the city of Groningen which didn't have any millers so they were sitting, unused, not turning. In total there were three mills without millers.

I send an email to the Molen Stichting Midden- en Oost- Groningen (Mill Association of Middle and East Groningen).  I offered to be the miller of one of their unmanned mills under the condition that I can only come to Groningen four times per year for a week.  I got a response that they thought this was a good idea and could I send them proof that I was a certified miller.   I sent them a copy of my Miller's Diploma and information about who my instructors were when I was an apprentice.  This was enough. They invited me to come to meet them and see if we could work together. 

This meeting took place on July 16th, 2017. I went to De Groote Poldermolen in Slochteren. At this meeting I met the Chairman, the Secretary, and the two Instructors of the Association (MSMOG - Molenstichting Midden- en Oost- Groningnen).  After a short discussion and some delicious banana creme pie (homemade by the wife of the Secretary), I signed a contract with the Stichting.  All of this was then photographed and appeared as an article in Het Dagblad van de Noorden (https://www.dvhn.nl/groningen/Amerikaan-Chris-West-houdt-Groningse-molens-belangeloos-draaiende-22366296.html).  

A picture from the article where I am shaking the hand of

Reint Huizinga, the Chairman of MSMOG

I learned at this meeting that I am to become the miller of Stel's Meulen in Harkstede in the province of Groningen!  

(https://www.google.nl/maps/place/Stel's+Molen/@53.2143327,6.697959,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x47c9d4a541fce1d5:0xd08cdfefeb3b37ed!8m2!3d53.2143327!4d6.700153?hl=en)

Archived image of Stel's Meulen, Harkstede, Groningen, NL

I have an appointment on the Sunday, July 30th, to "meet" the mill and the current miller who is retiring.  Although I will only be able to be at the mill four weeks a year, I am very much looking forward to being a miller on a real windmill!

Stay tuned for more blogs about my experiences at the mill!