Starting in September, keep a close eye on Herkenrode Abbey in the Hasselt borough of Kuringen. Once a month bread will be baked in the traditional way and sold. You will have to be on your toes because you can bet they will be sold like hot cakes!
The baking and grinding process takes place on site. In autumn 2019, volunteers took care of the water mill's interior to make it fully ready for grinding again. In addition, a new steel wheel and new wooden gates were installed. At regular times or by appointment you can see the restored Tuiltermolen at work.
The oven in the mill will be fired with prunings collected in the cedar apple plantation of the abbey site. Some 50 to 60 loaves will be baked at a time, with the characteristic taste of the past. This baking method meets the increasing demand for local and natural products. For the time being, two bakers will take turns, but if the initiative is a success - and who doubts that? – the oven might be fired up weekly in the future. The one-off experiment on Assumption Day 2021 was already successful.
The abbey shop already offers abbey products, such as the often-acclaimed Herkenrode beers, in addition to apple juice, syrup, jam and other delicacies.
For 600 years, from the end of the 12th century until the French Revolution, Herkenrode was a Cistercian abbey.
