Traditional Tongan brooms are extremely efficient.  They double as a rake and are perfect for sweeping away the piles of inexplicable insect and flora debris that collect on my porch on a daily basis.  Plus, if you happen to be a witch, you’d be hard pressed to find a more suitable mode of transport.

My neighbor Kaloni makes brooms at her house, and I was lucky enough to catch her (and her troupe of assistants) at work today.  The process is pretty simple, but even so, it takes her about five hours to make one broom, and that’s with the help of these cuties.

1. Harvest coconut palm fronds

2.  Skin the leaves from the spine of the frond

3.  File the spine down with a knife until it is smooth and narrow

4.  Gather the spines up in a cluster and wrap them around a stick

5.  Bind the spines to the stick by wrapping tightly around the top (As the picture below demonstrates, Kaloni uses electrical tape).

6.  Voila!  Now, just wait for the next full moon and practice your flying.  (It helps to drink some kava first.)