With the yearly harvesting of the sugar cane comes the harvesting of another plant : the bush commonly called fatak, used to make brooms. These bushes have long stems which, when in flower, separate into hundreds of fine fronds. ?Once the fatak are in flower, we harvest them,? explains Rehanna Bhundun, an inhabitant of Petit Verger.

According to Rehanna, they can only cut the bushes during the maré noir, a period when there is no moon, ?otherwise the fatak will rot quickly.? Then she puts the fatak stems to dry in the sun. Using synthetic raffia string, thread in a big needle, she expertly weaves three bunches together. This tight girdle of knots makes the broom stronger.

?I can make two or three brooms per day,? says Rehanna, sometimes helped by her husband. She sells them at different prices depending on the length and thickness of the broom, ?Rs 50 for some and up to Rs 100 for others.? But this commerce is an unreliable one and today she also has to plant vegetables to sell in the market to earn a decent living.

Rehanna learnt how to make these brooms when she was 16 years old. ?We used to make many more in those days when hedges and plantations of fatak were common,? she recalls. The traditional method of using fibres from the Vacoas plant to tie the fatak together is dead since this plant too is getting rarer. With the raw materials being less readily available, Rehanna prefers making brooms for neighbours and people from her village. With a touch of hope, Rehanna adds: ?None of my children has learnt how to make brooms yet, but maybe one day??