Broom Corn

By Heather Miller John Spannagel, of Hidalgo, IL, has been hand-making brooms for 6 and a half years. He and a friend, Darius Harms (originator of the show) were together showing a thresher at a show in Pinkneyville when a new idea was born— showing how to handmake brooms. Darius persuaded John to learn how to make brooms out of broomcorn and the rest is history. John, Mac Bumpus (Charleston, IL) and Bob Henderson (Casey, IL) work together at the HCP Show to demonstrate how this household staple was made back in the 1900’s.

The demonstration area walks visitors through the steps of the broom-making process from start to finish. It starts with growing the broomcorn, where it is harvested prior to maturity, in the “green stage” or milk stage for seed. It is a tough plant to harvest, but it is easier to cut the head off of the plant at this stage. The broomcorn head is run through a thresher/ seeder/cleaner where the seeds are removed off the brush or head of the plant that had been harvested. The brush is placed in a shed for 6 to 8 weeks to dry and then baled in 350 to 400 pound bales. Spannagel shared that these bales are then taken to the broom factory where it is graded and sorted in preparation for making brooms! It takes approximately 90 to 120 manhours from cutting the plant at harvest to broom completion, which is why broomcorn is no longer grown on a large scale in the U.S. anymore. He shared that 95% of the broomcorn for natural fiber brooms is grown in Mexico.