The Field Guideby Moss & MarrowMolen Johanna
- No synthetic pesticides or fertiliser (certified)
Molen Johanna is a windmill built in 1878 in the Bolderburen neighbourhood of Culemborg, where volunteer millers grind organic wheat, spelt and emmer between millstones into wholemeal flour and sifted white flour (bloem).
The mill is certified organic (SKAL); we found it in the register. All the grain is Dutch and organically grown, and at present it all comes from the organic farm Heel Haarlemmermeer in the Haarlemmermeer polder. Because the grain is ground between stones, the whole kernel including the germ stays in the flour, and the white flour is sifted on a bolter the millers built themselves, so bread baked from it is still light brown. When the harvest is poor or there is too little wind, a flour can be temporarily unavailable.
You can buy flour at the mill on almost every Saturday from 9:30 to 16:30, and sometimes on Fridays, whenever the blue pennant is flying; on other days it is sold at the organic shop BijBio Naturijn and at Stadsboerderij Caetshage in Culemborg.
The bran goes to a local organic pig farmer, whose manure goes to the Lingehout food forest in Geldermalsen, where wheat is grown that the mill grinds in turn.