Amongst all the serious reflections about the need to bring nature and humanity back together and hopes for the future, there were also some more light-hearted moments in King Charles’s new documentary. Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision can now be watched on Amazon Prime Video and showed the monarch in a way we rarely get to see him.
In one clip, King Charles personally went to collect eggs from the chicken coop at Highgrove House and I couldn’t help laughing at the sign on the door. What could be more fitting for the pets of a monarch than to live in their very own royal home, dubbed Cluckingham Palace.
It’s far from as grand as its namesake, Buckingham Palace, but they seem very taken with the place, clucking constantly until His Majesty left them in peace. The moment was a small part of Finding Harmony, but it immediately made me laugh and showed his sense of humour.
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After all, who doesn’t love a pun? It’s clear how much care goes into rearing these chickens and we saw the King personally collecting eggs in a wicker basket.
Although he won’t be doing this regularly – partly because his primary residence right now is Clarence House – I can fully believe that he does go down to see the chickens when he’s at Highgrove.
King Charles’s late mother Queen Elizabeth was also known for both her love of her pets and her quick wit. It seems to have been passed to another generation too, as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have also given their chicken coop its very own funny name.
(Image credit: Photo by Pool/Getty Images)
They rescued their chickens from a battery farm and we saw in their Oprah Winfrey interview that inside the coop is a sign reading ‘Archie’s Chick-Inn – established 2021’. For all we know, this might now have been re-named to include their daughter Lilibet but the personal touch is reminiscent of what King Charles’s feathered friends have.
The King has considerably more chickens, though, and 180 of them roam areas under the fruit trees. According to the Highgrove website, species include Burford Browns, Light Sussex, Marans and Welsummers and around 4,000 eggs are collected each year.
If you live in Gloucestershire and fancy trying some of these Cluckingham Palace eggs for yourself, then you can actually buy them from the Estate Shop and they’re also used in the Orchard Tea Room. Both the King and Queen are fond of egg-based dishes themselves, though their go-tos are rather different.
Queen Camilla’s son, food critic and writer Tom Parker Bowles, has revealed that her scrambled eggs were a staple on Boxing Day and a family favourite. She “seemed to be able to make huge quantities of these with the minimum of fuss” and cooks them on top of the Aga, with the pan “half off the coolest hotplate”, as the “key” is cooking them over a very low heat.
Meanwhile, King Charles shared a much-loved recipe for cheesy baked eggs on the final day of British Cheese Weekender in 2020. This dish includes wilted spinach, tomatoes, soft cheese, an egg, double cream, grated hard cheese and basil leaves and sounds deliciously indulgent.
Organic produce is incredibly important to His Majesty and Highgrove was one of the first major estates to not only commit to farming organically, but demonstrating that this approach was possible and viable.