{"id":313915,"date":"2026-10-25T11:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T11:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/313915\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T11:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T11:08:07","slug":"a-tiny-family-run-shop-crafts-thousands-of-brooms-for-salem-witches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/313915\/","title":{"rendered":"A tiny family run shop crafts thousands of brooms for Salem witches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rise and shine, Philly. After a very chilly morning, expect mostly clear skies and high temps in the 60s<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Out in rural Pennsylvania, handcrafted brooms are flying off the shelves as Halloween approaches<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And, the fate of priceless dioramas at the Academy of Natural Sciences hangs in the balance<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Read on for these Sunday stories and more.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Paola P\u00e9rez (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n

If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Far out in Sullivan County, a fifth-generation family business is hard at work, making thousands of brooms for the witching season.<\/p>\n

4,500 of them are headed straight for Salem, Mass., the world\u2019s witchiest city.<\/p>\n

Made by the Meckleys, the brooms, which are comprised of hardwoods and corn straw from Mexico, are made to last a lifetime. Their longtime craft started as a side hustle for bartering and later developed into a booming operation.<\/p>\n

My colleague Jason Nark, who reports on rural parts of Pennsylvania and the outdoors away from city life, takes us to the tiny town of Lopez to meet the family conjuring Salem\u2019s brooms. Read along here<\/a>, and watch our video<\/a> to go inside the Meckleys\u2019 shop.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the abrupt closure of the 198-year-old Academy of Natural Sciences, it\u2019s unclear what will become of the 32 dioramas on display.<\/p>\n

They feature a variety of taxidermied animals, including a tiger, polar bear, and moose. Most have remained untouched since they were unveiled, providing the public with a window into distant parts of the natural world.<\/p>\n

Unlike other parts of the museum\u2019s collection, the dioramas are near-immovable historic artifacts. Preserving them would require significant time, labor, and money, perhaps millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

Notable quote: \u201cOnce we lose these, they\u2019re gone forever,\u201d one taxidermist told The Inquirer\u2019s Rosa Cartagena.<\/p>\n

Continue reading on the risky effort to maintain the Academy\u2019s historical dioramas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What you should know today<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfa4 Here\u2019s Tommy Rowan with a look back at a world-famous experiment involving a household item and a child\u2019s toy.<\/p>\n

Ben Franklin was a lot of things. But as productive as he was, he routinely gets attached to scores of breakthroughs that he had no hand in developing.<\/p>\n

He did not, for example, discover electricity. Nor was he struck by lightning playing with a kite and a key in an open Philadelphia field.<\/p>\n

When it comes to his most famous experiment, this was his most important scientific contribution: He proposed a way to actually answer the question of whether lightning is a form of electricity.<\/p>\n

Read on for the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2753Pop quiz<\/p>\n

An Inquirer analysis determined that this waterway has been the most flood-prone stream in the region.<\/p>\n

A) The Brandywine<\/p>\n

B) The Schuylkill <\/p>\n

C) The Delaware River<\/p>\n

D) None of the above<\/p>\n

Think you know? Check your answer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What we\u2019re …<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf57 Crunching on: Golden chicken yakitori at dancerobot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf78 Shaking up: How Philly\u2019s most ambitious bartender is sowing the seeds of a beverage revolution here and abroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude2e Curious about: The secret Philly connection in this season\u2019s hottest documentary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfe1 Learning from: How a paralegal\u2019s journey back to Philly led her to a new home, in the latest edition of \u201cHow I Bought This House<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\ud83d\uddde\ufe0f Considering: Inquirer columnist Daniel Pearson unpacks changes to Philly\u2019s Christmas Village, the failure of a SEPTA funding compromise, and more in this week\u2019s Shackamaxon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udde9 Unscramble the anagram<\/p>\n

Hint: Famed poet.<\/p>\n

TAM WITH LAWN<\/p>\n

Email us if you know the answer<\/a>. We\u2019ll select a reader at random to shout out here.<\/p>\n

Cheers to Jacob Tiver, who correctly guessed Saturday\u2019s answer: Swedesboro. A local brewery there created an AI brand ambassador, and the internet doesn\u2019t like it. The founder doesn\u2019t plan to back down<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfb6 Today\u2019s track goes like this: \u201cIf you\u2019re a star, shine on me \/ If you\u2019re not, let me be<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

One more musical thing: Politics. Insects. Black Sabbath, and Bob Dylan. These were just a few elements of rising protest singer Jesse Welles\u2019 Friday night show at the Met Philly. The Inquirer\u2019s pop critic has the highlights<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc4b\ud83c\udffd That\u2019s it for now. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a glowing day.<\/p>\n

By submitting your written, visual, and\/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer\u2019s Terms of Use<\/a>, including the grant of rights in Section 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rise and shine, Philly. After a very chilly morning, expect mostly clear skies and high temps in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,128132],"class_list":["post-313915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-salem-witch-brooms-crafted-in-pennsylvania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}