Founded in 1882, in Nyons in the Drôme Provencale, by Ferdinand and Marie Fert, this artisanal family business has survived the 20th century.
It is now managed by Frederique and Arnaud Fert, the grandchildren of the creators.
From silk to scourtins
From the entrance, you will be impressed by the old stones of the former silkworm farm ; indeed, before weaving scourtins, it was silk thread that was spun and wound here.
In this beautiful building is also hidden a forge used for tools and weaving machines maintenance, together with the ancient silk cocoon smother, now used for dyeing coconut fiber to make scourtins.
Outside, in the central square, few hundred years old plane trees, a splendid Judaea tree and trellises where the colored coconut rope are let to dry, give a warm feeling to the place.
In the workshop, where cast iron columns support the ceiling, the wheel of an 1892 loom stands among other tools. The masters of the place invite us to discover the ancestors portraits ; here, generations have followed one another and have had to adapt to circumstances and to economic disruptions.
Scourtins leave the oil mills
The old method of pressure extraction consisted in separating the oil must from the pomace thanks to a filtration through a stack of scourtins, alternating layers of paste and scourtins under a press.
1956 was a terrible year ; the frost bursts the trunk of olive trees, devastating the provencal olive grove and bringing La Scourtinerie to the edge of bankruptcy.
Georges Fert noticed that many people used old scourtins as doormats and had the idea to dye coconut fiber in order to transform the scourtins intented for oil mills into decorative objects.
