corn brooms was New, improved Was: Data Entry 1270

Sorry to take so long to respond. Been busy, and the Newsguy server, or possibly xrn, has been acting up and periodically declaring that there aren't any unread articles.

Well, it's probably something of a specialty crop. And mid-Michigan is far enough from mid-Indiana for there to be some regional language differences - and, for that matter, significant climate and soil differences, so people farm different things. Up here it seems like fruit is a much bigger crop than in Indiana, which tends to be a corn and beans state.

I'll look around for the card.

Why the Dakotas?

Oh, we drive to Indiana at least once a month, to get our hair done. (Her hairdresser there is one of her best friends, and since she's going, I might as well too.) And that means that nearly every month we stop by her grandparents' farm. They're long since retired, but it's still farm country.

But we do like having farms around here. Actually, there are some in walking distance from the house: one of the MSU ag school farms, some tree farms, some orchards, that sort of thing. Don't really even need to drive.

We also have an excellent local butcher shop, who make their own sausage and dress game, and there's a tavern a block away that has gizzards on the menu. Missing Michigan yet, Barb? :-)

I found a bunch of places to order them from online, but a casual search didn't turn up anywhere to buy them in Framingham. On the other hand, I did find all sorts of fascinating things. Apparently the corn broom was invented in Wethersfield, CT, outside Hartford, for example. (I'm a bit dubious about that, since other accounts have Pequots, Mohegans, and other New England tribes using, making, and selling brooms before Wethersfield was established.)

Wait a minute - Don Garland Inc, 250 Howard Street, Framingham (508-875-7537) makes corn brooms. (Small world - I used to work right near there.) You can probably buy directly from them, or they could tell you where you could find their brooms.

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