もう１５年くらいずっと、毎年、この時期にはウンブリアの知り合いの「San Potente」というリーブ畑で作られるエクストラバージン・オリーブオイルを空輸していただいていて、今日、今年のオイルが到着しました。シンガポールでは大量に購入していましたが、イギリスに来てからは寒いのでサラダをあまり作らなくなり、おもてなしもほとんどしていないので以前ほど使わなくなりたくさん余ってしまったので、去年はぐんと減らして５００ミリのボトルを６本だけ購入したところ少し足りなかったので、今年は１０本。毎年値上がりしているのとBrexit のお陰で輸入税がかかるようになり（オリーブオイルはかからないはずなので夫が税関と交渉してくれましたが埒があかず）ずいぶん高価になってしまいましたが、やはり、これがないと寂しい。

I think it’s been 15 years or so since we started getting the new extra virgin olive oil from “San Potente”  Umbria and we’ve been getting it every year since and the new oil arrived today!  At first we had them from a different olive farm but we have been getting from this “San Potente” Olive Farm for the last 13 years or so as we know them personally.  We used to buy a large amount when we were in Singapore but since we moved to England we haven’t been using as much olive oil as before, probably partly because we don’t have salad as often since it’s cold here but also I don’t have lunch and dinner parties any longer and we had a lot left in the last few years.  Besides, they are getting more and more expensive specially after Brexit because of import duty, as far as we know they aren’t supposed to charge duty on olive oil so my husband tried hard to get it back last year but he couldn’t.  Anyway, for these reasons, we bought just 6 small bottles last year but it wasn’t quite enough so this year we bought 10 bottles.  We wanted some because new oil from Umbria is now a part of our life this time of year and we’ll miss it too much if we didn’t have it.

今日はお昼にしっかり食べたので夜は食事はしなかったのですが、ガーリックトーストで今日届いたオイルをいただきました。今年もいただくことが出来てとても嬉しい。パンはパン焼き器で焼いた「フランスパン」。焼くとカリカリになってとっても美味しいです。

We had a big lunch so no evening meal today, but we had some garlic toasts to taste the new oil.  I am so happy that we were able to get hold of them this year again.  The bread is what I baked using our bread machine on “French Bread” mode, it gets so crispy when we toast it, so delicious.