Molen de Valk: a day in the life of a miller

While lazily driving around on side roads one Saturday afternoon, we ended up in Moontfort, saw a working windmill and decided to give a look.

The Molen De Valk was built in 1753 but fell in disrepair after the Second World War.
It was later transformed into a house (you can see still some remaining plaster where the shower used to be, on the first floor) and was eventually converted back to a proper mill into the Noughties. It's milling flour again since 2009

Before the War there were 27.000 working windmills in the provinces of Utrecht and South-Holland alone, while now there are about just 600 in the whole country.

Once inside, we got a wonderful (plus free and unexpected) guided tour from Hein, one of the volunteer millers.

A cheerful and very knowledgeable fellow, he informed us that although he does love his wife, the true passion of his life is the Windmill.

Pun asides, he also explained all the mechanisms and intricacies of the grinding and milling processes, the different kind of flours and the meaning of the different positions of the sails. When the wind is good, the mill can produce up to 250 kilos of flour per hour!

Lovely ladies tend the quaint shop on the first floor, which sells a vast range of flours, cake and cookie mixes and jams.

All in all a great experience and throughout recommendable, especially since then on Sunday morning we got to make pannekoeken with the freshly milled flour mix.

They are open on Saturdays only and the tours are given in Dutch.

This is the link to the website, with opening times, history, overview on products and info on own to become a "Vriend van de Molen de Valk"

http://www.molendevalk.nl/