On Saturday, miller Ben Beerens let the blades of mill Sint Antonius Abt in Borkel turn at high speed on a stiff northwest wind. As on many other days, but this time it’s not so much to grind a crop. The shooting day is an ode to the miller’s profession, a craft that fewer and fewer people are interested in. And without new growth, many windmills are in danger of shutting down and withering rapidly. Time for a breath of fresh air.
Ben is a volunteer who grinds according to the offer. This concerns grain with which animal feed is made and flour for baking bread. Today that is a difficult task. Large flour mills eat away all the regrind. Saint Anthony AbbotBuilt in 1865, it is no match for the cutthroat modernity.
The monumental belt mill on the Dorpsstraat is a showpiece, cherished by the Borkelnaren and Ben in particular. The proud miller is ‘infected’ with it, he confesses. “Your own mill is always the most beautiful. Before you can grind independently, you have to run for at least four seasons. Nothing is as important as the weather. And the miller’s trade involves a three-year training course. A mill is a complex, impressive tool. You have to know how it all works, have knowledge of the parts and the history.”
That scares a lot of people off, Ben thinks. A pity, because a shortage of millers threatens the survival of many mills. “Something like that should not be lost”, pointing to Borkel’s white pride. “We have some young people who are interested in the craft, but far too few. Unknown makes unloved. A lot of young people have no idea what there is to do at a mill. What you ask of the mill and the mill asks of you”, he concludes.
To reinforce the words of Ben and his colleagues, on Saturday morning between eleven and twelve windmills and watermills were running throughout the Netherlands. The initiative comes from the Guild of Voluntary Molenaars, which will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022. An unofficial record has been set with 809 mills running simultaneously. Nice, but the actual goal is actually a cry for attention, an invitation to everyone to practice the miller’s trade. Because without a miller, every mill will come to a standstill at some point. The less a mill spins, the faster it wears.
“There is no more beautiful hobby. It is better to be a miller than a footballer. You last longer. I should have started it much earlier. It is just addictive,” Ben laughs.