The besom—a bundle of broomcorn lashed to ash or birch with waxed twine—predates the Salem witch trials by centuries, yet the 1692 hysteria cemented its silhouette in American folklore. Colonial households swept hearth stones with besoms fashioned from whatever grew wild: sorghum, birch twigs, even corn husks bound with hemp cord. The craft nearly vanished when factory-made bristle brooms arrived in the 1850s, but a handful of New England artisans preserved the binding methods, passing knotwork and grain selection down through family workshops. The Witchery, a working craft studio on Salem's waterfront since 2014, revived the besom as both functional tool and living history lesson. Its one-hour Salem broom making workshop walks participants through the entire process: selecting broomcorn by stiffness, trimming the seed heads, layering the stalks in overlapping tiers, then cinching the bundle with a four-pass twine wrap that locks without adhesive. The technique mirrors 18th-century methods documented in Essex County probate inventories, where brooms appeared alongside spinning wheels and butter churns as essential household goods. Instructors demonstrate the shoulder roll—a motion that compresses the corn while leaving hands free to feed the cord—and explain why ash handles split less than pine under repeated torque. Salem's maritime economy once supplied broomcorn to chandleries up and down the Massachusetts coast; ships' cooks used short-handled besoms to clear flour dust from galley planks. The Witchery sources its broomcorn from the same Connecticut River Valley fields that fed 19th-century broom factories, and every handle blank comes from Massachusetts hardwood. The workshop doubles as a材料science primer: broomcorn is technically a cultivar of sorghum, its panicles bred for length and flex rather than grain. Participants leave with a 36-inch besom strong enough for outdoor sweeping and a working knowledge of the joinery that kept colonial homes functional before mass production. The hour concludes with a demonstration of historical broom styles—the Shaker flat broom, the Appalachian round broom, the cobweb broom with its angled head—each adapted to a specific surface or reach. The workshop runs year-round at 86 Wharf Street, a repurposed sail loft with original 1840s floor joists and steel-reinforced ceiling beams. The studio's inventory includes over two hundred broom artifacts, from a miniature hearth broom no longer than a forearm to a six-foot stable broom used in Marblehead carriage houses. Every Salem broom making workshop ticket includes materials, instruction, and the finished besom; no prior craft experience required. The Witchery also offers advanced sessions in decorative binding and dyed broomcorn inlay, though the introductory class remains the most popular, blending tactile skill with the port city's layered craft traditions.