Making a Broom

    Getting back to basics is important for our generation to know. what was it like to fashion a broom and sweep the bread and cookie crumbs from the floor? Some day it may be your turn.

    Plastic brooms? No way do they compare with the good old broomcorn brooms. I have tried them all and to my delight the broomcorn broom outperformed them all. Depending upon the shape of the broom, you can reach into any corner and sweep almost any or all debris off the sidewalk, driveway, or porch. Sorghum and millet are two excellent sources for broom material. The raising of broomcorn as a money product in the farmer's market, is happening at this time. Millions of tons of broomcorn plants are harvested for food products, and the stems are used to make a variety of brooms. If you wish to make your own brooms, the broomcorn plants can be purchased after the harvest, and will pique your dreams to make a better one than can be purchased.

Grow your own

    If it's your desire to grow your own broomcorn, plant the seeds in thirty inch rows only 4 inches apart. Thin them to 8 inches apart as they stick their noses above ground, and then thin them to ten inches apart for the final thinning. Weed the plants and water just like sweet corn stalks. Wait until late summer (if you can figure out Florida's unpredictable seasons) and keep your eyeballs on the ripening of the plant. Catch them before the seeds on the stalks are completely developed. Check the seeds, if still green, bend the stalks approximately two and one half feet below the tassel. While still rooted let them dry for several weeks; when dry cut off the tassels, remove the straw like brush and remove the leaves. If some of the plant feels damp or soft let it dry another week.

Putting it together

    Select the stalk lengths for your broom, the long straws cut to equal length-called "Hurl" makes the strongest broom. Find a strong chord for binding, plus a broom handle of sufficient length to reach those areas thought to be inaccessible. Soak your broom material in boiling water to soften and while they are soft, hot, and manageable bind them tightly to your broom frame with wire, chord, and or possibly a nail or two. By the way you may whisk away your spare time by making whisk brooms for your friends, relatives, or nosey people.

    Isn't it strange how industry strongly urges you to buy a vacuum cleaner for your car to suck up the dirt from the floor. Stranger yet- it still takes a whisk broom to loosen the junky, funky, goo and what-cha-may call it gunk from the foot pad.

    I just had a thought; what do they use to sweep the clay off of home base during a baseball game? Oh hum, let's sweep all of this under the carpet.


    If you are not in the mood to make your own, purchase a broom and notice how the price tag on a quality broom exceeds your wallet. How many times have you purchased a broom of less quality and to your unfaltering ego wish you had followed your instinct to dig a little deeper and forget the hole at the bottom of your pocket?