2008 Prince of Wales (Charles) and Camilla Visit Dig For Victory Allotment
Photo by Samir Hussein/WireImage. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall are presented with vegetables from the allotment as they visit the ‘Dig for Victory’ organic allotment in St James’ Park on July 17, 2008 in London, England. The Duchess of Cornwall was celebrating her 61st Birthday.
By REBECCA ENGLISH
Mail-Online 8th July 2008
Going to an allotment might not be high on everyone’s birthday wish list. Indeed while most women get flowers or chocolates on their special day – or perhaps a pretty pink bag from some snazzy designer store – for the Duchess it was a cabbage.
Not any old cabbage, mind you. For a member of the Royal Family only a giant green Durham Early would do. But there was no getting away from the fact that the present in her hands was still an oversized garden vegetable.
Camilla lives the Good Life as she recycles birthday outfit… and gets a giant cabbage for a present
By REBECCA ENGLISH
Mail- Online?8th July 2008
Her husband is a big proponent of recycling. And so, it seems, is the Duchess of Cornwall.
On a public engagement to mark her 61st birthday yesterday, Camilla wore exactly the same outfit she had chosen for her 60th. The chic Anna Valentine couture skirt and jacket was teamed with the same low-heeled beige LK Bennett shoes, watch, bracelet and flower-spray brooch.
Even her shoes – low heeled beige LK Bennett courts – watch, bracelet and flower-spray brooch were identical to the previous year, proving that when it comes to fashion, she is not adverse to following her husband’s motto: recycle, recycle, recycle.
Going to an allotment might not be high on everyone’s birthday wish list. Indeed while most women get flowers or chocolates on their special day – or perhaps a pretty pink bag from some snazzy designer store – for the Duchess it was a cabbage.
Not any old cabbage, mind you. For a member of the Royal Family only a giant green Durham Early would do. But there was no getting away from the fact that the present in her hands was still an oversized garden vegetable.
Fortunately Camilla was able to put on one of those ‘thank you so much – it’s what I have always wanted’ smiles perfected by the Royal Family.
And later she received more typical celebratory fare including a hand-made card from a group of schoolchildren and an organic carrot cake which she gamely cut with a trowel before using her finger to scrape off a morsel of cream-cheese icing and popping it into her mouth.
Accompanied by her husband, Prince Charles, Camilla also enjoyed a tour around the 1940s-themed Dig For Victory allotment, a joint project between The Royal Parks and the Cabinet War Rooms, to show how easy it is to grow your own fruit and vegetables even in the heart of a city.
The project is entirely staffed by volunteers, many of whom are local schoolchildren, who have turned their hands to crops including potatoes, carrots, cabbages, onions, marrows, courgettes and beetroot.
Both Charles and Camilla are keen gardeners and looked animated as they toured the site – to which entry is free – with the prince revealing that he often tends his own vegetable patch at Clarence House, his London residence.
Faced with her birthday cabbage, Camilla cheerfully quipped: ‘Oh my goodness me, look at that. It’s a big one.’
Like many women she looked slightly embarrassed by stream of well-wishers making constant references to her age, but thanked a group of children from the St Vincent de Paul Primary School in Westminster who sang happy birthday and gave her a card and a trug of freshly-picked vegetables.
After an impromptu walkabout the couple headed back off through the park on foot to their apartment at Clarence House some 400 yards away, leaving groups of disbelieving in tourists in their wake – many of whom simply refused to believe that the heir to the throne and his wife had just tripped past.
Royal sources said the Duchess planned a more traditional celebration later in the evening – a romantic dinner a deux with her husband at Highgrove, their country home – but declined to reveal whether the prince’s gift had been animal, vegetable or mineral.
‘The only carrots he would have given her would have been on a piece of jewellery,’ joked one.
Prince Charles implores the nation to Dig for Victory
The Prince of Wales has urged people to start growing their own vegetables in an effort to combat the soaring cost of living.
By Harry Wallop
The Telegraph
25 Jul 2008
People did not need 900 acres of organic farmland, as he enjoys at Highgrove – a humble window box was enough, he insisted.
In a nod to the famous Dig for Victory campaign of the Second World War, he suggested people should grow their own vegetables, fruit and herbs.
He said: “At a time when food sovereignty is becoming an increasing issue with high fuel prices, there cannot be a better time to encourage people to grow their own food where possible.”
He added: “It doesn’t need an acre of garden, a window box is a very good start.”
Prince Charles made his comments while he was in Ryton, near Coventry in Warwickshire, to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Garden Organic, Britain’s leading organic research organisation.
Recent research suggests people are already heading his advice, with waiting lists for allotments at an all-time high.
Figures from the horticultural trades association show a 31 per cent increase in the sales of vegetable seed to householders, and a corresponding 32 per cent decline in the sale of flower seeds.
Suttons, which sells nearly a third of all household vegetable seeds in the UK, said sales of potato seeds were up by 60 per cent on last year.
It is estimated that the allotments of London now produce 16,000 tonnes of vegetables each year.
The Royal Parks in London have already set up two allotments in St James’s Park to show schoolchildren the benefits of sustainability and recycling. There are plans to widen the scheme to other parks.
The rise in popularity of grow your own is not all down to the credit crisis, gardening experts say.
They point out that many consumers are keen to escape being beholden to the supermarkets. The trend has also been driven by celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, both of whom have championed the joys of eating home-grown vegetables.
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