Perhaps in terms of number of products, the most common mill to be seen on UK
shelves is the picture of Holme Mills, Biggleswade, which features on the
extensive range of products produced by
Jordans - a family milling
firm producing a range of breakfast cereals and similar products.
In a similar vein, the bakers are not far behind, with images of windmills appearing on loaves of wholemeal bread produced by Allinson (now part of the Allied Mills group). Allinson is also used as a brand name on various baking supplies, such as yeast, also branded with a windmill logo.
More milling heritage is on show on the packs of flour produced by Wrights flour mill, at Ponders End, North London, since the company logo is a millstone. As home bread makers have blossomed in popularity in recent years, so has this firm widened its range of specialist bread mixes, which now achieve widespread supermarket distribution.
The organic cookies from Prewett's - another firm with a 125 year food heritage, also feature a picture of a watermill.
A rather more recent entry to the baking trade,
Fudges carries a
watermill picture on their ranges of Cheddar wafers and cheese straws.
Organic flour packs from Doves Farm also feature images of windmills.
The regional Welsh baker, Brace's Bakery also had a recent award winning redesign of its packaging, to incorporate a windmill logo. This is being used across their bread packaging, which they also vary seasonally.
In the past, Hovis has also used windmill themes, though their current packaging does not show this connection.
The UK bread brand, the Windmill Bakery, also carried a windmill on its packaging, but the brand seems mostly remembered now due to the diecast toys that were produced of its delivery vehicles.
Windmill Farms is a Kosher
bakery in New York, whose packaging unsurprisingly given their name,
includes a windmill.
Another favoured product is cookies, which are often to be found in a Dutch themed tin.
A variety of Dutch produced cakes are marketed in England under the Dutch Mill
brand, with a very simplified windmill as the logo.
In the USA, the Minnesota firm Old Dutch Foods produces potato crisps (or chips as they would have it!) and other snack foods. (Company History). The same brand is also available in Canada, though not necessarily in the same flavours.
Vandermint, a Dutch chocolate mint liqueur illustrates its bottles with a Dutch scene including windmills.
Batemans, the Wainfleet brewery has
a windmill tower within their brewery, and this features as their logo to
be seen on their beer bottles.
In South Africa,
Pouyoukas Foods produce a large range of whole foods and snacks which
feature a 10 sailed "Greek style" windmill on the packaging.
The Estonian island of Saaremaa has so many windmills on it that is understandably the image of the island, appearing on a diverse range of local produce, including cheese, water, vodka and beer in bottles and cans. (Other illustrations [1] )
Also in the Baltics, the Lithuanian beer Senas Malunas features a stylized windmill.
Barbados, another land of many windmills, has a firery Caribbean chilli sauce produced by Windmill Products that carries a windmill on its packaging.
In a slightly mixed up way, the Mexican product of "Molino Real" Vanilla carries a picture of a tower mill, though the associated advertising uses a windpump theme!
This Spanish processed cheese also features windmills.
The French distillery of
Distillerie de Loos
used to use windmill motifs, and although it has been bought up by another
distillery, some products still carry
windmill logos.
One product that does use such an image is the Nebraska Sweetness tins of chocolates.
Another product to do this is Walnut Ridge Karoo South African Farmstyle Apricot Cooking Sauce, which carries a picture of the South African Karoo - a area of the country with quite literally hundreds of thousands of windpumps scattered over it.
The Spanish Firm of Quely uses a panorama of 4 windpumps on their range of biscuits and snacks.
| Last updated 03/03/2017 | Text and images © Mark Berry, 1997-2017 - |
