Windmill, fresh flour and Stamppot: Delft, Netherlands

Back in June 2019, I had an opportunity to visit the Hague for a conference and explore a few nearby cities in the Netherlands. Luckily, my colleague and I met a local student who was doing his Ph.D. in Delft and got to hang out in this small, quiet and beautiful city with his guide. We explored the city, visited a windmill that was producing flour, and visited a local Dutch restaurant to finish off the day!

Little facts about Delft

• Location: South of the Hague (~ 50 min. by train), situated in the South Holland area
• Population: 101,400 [ 1 ]
• Known for Delft pottery (most of it is blue and white) [ 2 ]

Flour is produced in the windmill every Thursday

Right next to the railway, you can find one of a few functioning windmill in Delft, “Delftse Molen de Roos”. It is mainly operated by volunteers and producing flour only on Thursdays. We happened to be there on Thursday and got to see the grain mill in action!

According to the guide inside of the windmill:

Windmills have played a major role in the Netherlands. Around 1200 the first windmills were probably built in our country. Initially they were only used to grind grain. From the fifteenth century onward, they were also used to move water, which greatly increased the habitability of our country. In the seventeenth century, mills were used for industry for the first time. Mills were used for many purposes and in the eighteenth century some 10,000 mills were in operation. By 1900 there were still 4,000 mills in the Netherlands; by 1996 this number had shrunk to 1,000. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

So this windmill has been protected and maintained by the Dutch Mill society founded in 1923 and the local organization. The decline of the number of mills started at the beginning of the industrial revolution after the discovery of steam power. Before then, mills were used for all kinds of purposes, including grinding paint, oil, cocoa, grains and corns.

There is a small gift shop in the base of the Delftse Molen de Roos where you can find all kinds of things to bake beautiful bread. I wanted to get so many things…bread recipe book in Dutch, proofing basket in different shapes… but I had a limited amount of luggage that I could fly with for free. I ended up getting just 1 kg of rye flour produced in the windmill and baked a loaf of sourdough bread with it at home!

Stamppot: Dutch home-cooked meal that fills you up

Our guide took us to a small, cozy and friendly local restaurant, THUIS by Ladera, for dinner. We went to the patio in the backside of the restaurant, filled with green plants and funky decorations. Some of us decided to order Stamppot, which is a large plate of mashed potato with some green leafy vegetables, topped with meat such as a sausage. In our case, we got a lot of bacon pieces and a large meatball. It was simple but very good. Such a nice way to finish off a sunny day with hearty Dutch food, Dutch beer (Hertog Jan) and a great company of friends!