For the Record – Jan. 21, 2016

for-the-recordby Barbara Mastriania

A clean sweep from the PA Broom Closet

I admit it, until recently I took my broom for granted. As long as it swept up the crumbs and didn’t give me splinters, everything was copasetic. I used the broom when I needed it. It hung on a nail when it wasn’t in use.

But then a few weeks ago, a guest from Georgia, D’Anna Tucker, asked me about the broom. She liked it’s wide sweep and it’s bright colors, the green, red, orange and brown bristles. I was seeing my broom in a new light.

I had gotten the broom at a craft fair held at Susqueview some years ago. It was handmade by a Lock Haven woman, Barbara Barrett. D’Anna wanted to buy several brooms as gifts for friends in Georgia. We got information from the tag on the broom and made an appointment to visit Ms. Barrett. It turned out to be one of the most interesting ventures I’d had in a long time.

Sisters and business partners Barbara Barrett of Lock Haven and Debbie Lutz of Troy produce some of the best brooms in Pennsylvania. They own and operate the PA Broom Closet, a business that’s housed in Barrett’s home when they are not appearing at a show somewhere. When they’re appearing at a show the PA Broom Closet is housed in a small barn-like building made for travel. They appear at a variety of shows from spring through fall.

Broom making is a labor intensive three phase process. It begins with planting the broom corn. It is slowing growing and sometimes grows to 16 feet high. Height is not uniform from plant to plant, so the crop is hand harvested. It then has to be dried and deseeded before the broom making.

Barrett said they used to grow the plant and sell the tossils as decorations. At one point Deb’s husband suggested they do something with the plant because they had a field full of it. They thought about the brooms and through the Lancaster Farm magazine found vintage 1800s broom making equipment for sale.

They also visited broom makers, “ broomers” in other places to learn the art of broom making.

Through their research they learned that broomers were abundant until the 1950s when the tariff was lifted off imported brooms. The imports don’t compare to the hand-made brooms from the PA Broom Closet.

The mature plant looks like a corn stalk with tossils. The tossil is the part that is specifically used to make the broom. It is a hearty plant that grows to 16 feet tall. Does best in dry weather. The corn plant arrived in the USA in the 1800s, attributed to Ben Franklin. Early brooms were round. The Shakers developed the flat broom that can do twice the area.

When the tossils are dried the first step is to put it on a handle by a foot-driven ‘kick winder.’ It looks like a round broom at this point.

The broom is next placed into a specialized raking press and hand stitched to produce the broom we are familiar with today. The belief is that the press was invented by the Shakers.

For the final step, the finished broom is placed into a trimmer which evenly \cuts the end off the broom.

Their brooms come in a variety of styles and colors and round handles and square handles. The square handles are recycled authentic hardwood tobacco sticks that once were used to hand tobacco in barns to dry.

You can learn more about the brooms at www.thepabroomcloset.com

Dynamics to play at Bucktail …

Bud and the Dynamics will be playing music for the BMC resident’s annual Valentine Party of February 12 at 1:30 p.m.

Cats not welcome here …

Rumor has it, not a clue if it’s true, but the rumor is there are more cats than people on Third Street. Rumor is that a Third Street property owner who resides elsewhere but is in the process of getting ready to move back to Renovo. But what the property owner is finding messy feces from the cats all around his property and on his porch. Rumor is that the property owner is not pleased. The cats are either strays or belong to someone else.

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