The besom — a bundle of broomcorn bound to ash or birch — predates the vacuum by centuries and survives today not as nostalgia but as working craft. At The Witchery on Salem's Wharf Street, a one-hour witch city broom making workshop Salem MA session returns visitors to the logic of hand tools, natural fiber, and the exact tension required to bind a broom that sweeps rather than decorates. The workshop occupies a narrow storefront two blocks from Derby Wharf, where nineteenth-century Salem shipped textiles and spices but also the humble household brooms that furnished farmsteads across New England. Broomcorn — not true corn but a cultivated sorghum — was harvested in late summer, dried in barn lofts, and graded by length and pliability. The longest stalks became hearth brooms; shorter fibers were reserved for whisk brooms and altar besoms. Salem's identity as Witch City is a brand, but the craft itself is older than the 1692 trials and unrelated to folklore. Besom construction descends from agrarian necessity: straw wore out, handles splintered, and a household that could not replace its broom was a household losing ground to dirt and ash. The Witchery workshop does not romanticize this history; it teaches the mechanics. Participants select broomcorn from graded bundles, align the seed heads, and compress the fiber around a dowel while wrapping jute twine in overlapping spirals. The binding must be tight enough to hold under use but not so rigid that the broom becomes a club. Instructors demonstrate the thumb-loop technique — a method that distributes tension across the hand rather than isolating it in the wrist — and participants spend the remainder of the hour repeating the motion until the spiral tightens into a permanent form. The workshop fee includes all materials: broomcorn, handle stock, jute twine, and a canvas apron that doubles as a lap shield. Sessions run Tuesday through Sunday between ten in the morning and five in the afternoon, with the last start at four o'clock to accommodate the full hour. The Witchery schedules no more than eight participants per session, a constraint imposed by table space and the instructor's ability to correct hand position in real time. Each participant leaves with a finished broom approximately thirty inches tall, functional for indoor sweeping or outdoor thresholds. The broomcorn sheds minimally if bound correctly; handles may be sanded and oiled at home to extend durability. Salem's artisan craft workshops occupy a small but stable niche in the city's tourism economy, distinct from the ghost tours and trial reenactments that dominate October. The witch city broom making workshop Salem MA tour operates year-round, drawing equal numbers of history enthusiasts, craft hobbyists, and visitors seeking a tactile counterpoint to the city's theatrical attractions. The Witchery also offers candle-dipping and herbal sachets, but the broom workshop remains the flagship: it requires the most instruction, produces the most durable object, and connects most directly to the material culture of early American households.