Just know that when I read the headline about “what the Duchess of Cornwall gives the Queen for Christmas,” my first thought was “please let it be chutney!” I so want a Chutney-Off for Royal Christmas. I want Duchess Kate to bring her carefully packed jar of chutney to Christmas at Sandringham, only to find that Camilla has brought two jars of HER chutney. But no, Camilla isn’t bringing chutney to Sandringham. She’s bringing posh honey! I love this story, because I’ve always been fascinated by beekeepers. Camilla has an apiary!
It’s the million-dollar question for every Royal at this time of year. What do you give at Christmas to the family that has everything? But Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, has a novel idea for her mother-in-law the Queen and daughters-in-law Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex and Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge. She keeps bees in her private house in Wiltshire and makes limited edition honey from the hives.
Meghan and Kate are keen cooks and would certainly love a jar or two of the sweet stuff. The honey also raises money for good causes. Every year Camilla, 71, sends 500 jars of the limited edition products to posh grocers Fortnum and Mason. This year the proceeds from the £20 pots are going to Helen & Douglas House, a children’s hospice in Oxford. Camilla has also invited children and their families from the hospice to a special Christmas tea party at Clarence House at the start of next month. The Duchess is patron of Helen & Douglas House, which does amazing work looking after terminally-ill children.
Camilla has had bee hives in her Ray Mill House garden for a number of years – and has sold honey for charity for the last four years. The honey is described as ‘light and delicate with an irresistible sweet caramel flavour – perfect spread on toast or drizzled over porridge’.
Camilla has always been a “countrywoman,” in the sense that she’s more comfortable out of London, when she can be around her horses, her dogs and her bees. I think it’s extremely cool that Camilla keeps hives, and that she makes limited edition honey to gift to friends and to raise money for charity. And yes, I would love to taste Camilla’s posh, charitable honey.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I have a lot of windflowers and pumpkins growing around my house in the summer. A few of my neighbours got beehives last year, I hadn’t seen so many bees in years. It was amazing. I literally stood up and watched them for hours this summer, they are beautiful creatures. I even got a few small jars of honey from my neighbours, so friggin delicious
Plant some catmint – that’s supposed to be catnip to bees (so to speak). Give those bees more to snack on!
They love catnip too
Love it. I took a beekeeping course once and it was fascinating. I would definitely buy this.
I like the idea that she quietly does this and it’s reflective of who she is.
Agreed. I like what we know of Camilla’s personality.
The label should read: Ambrosia Honey, food of the Royals.
Camilla and her honey, Kate and her chutney. I wonder what Megs may bring? Something all American (hopefully not pimento cheese spread 😖
Wonder if Kate thinks she may be setting a trend.
Banana bread pudding. With chocolate chips.
Don’t they do gag gifts for each other? Pimento cheese would be perfect. LOL It’s very American and a bit low-brow. And I love it. I often forget to spread it on anything and just eat it out of the bowl.
Yes it is gag gifts for Christmas. And pimento cheese as a gift- wish i could see their faces.
Eyeroll. This is no different from chutneying. The genteel country pursuits of the privileged do not impress me. Publishing a cookbook for a charity? That impresses me.
They’re both raising money for worthy causes. It doesn’t always have to be an either/or thing. Both are noble endeavors and both reflect the personalities and passions of the women doing them.
Jessica
Sorry. I just give Meghan more credit than these entitled one percenters. I’ve been watching the royals too long to change my mind. I do make exception for Camilla’s work with rape survivors and osteoporosis sufferers. But yeah I just refuse to do a backflip every time a royal does something quaint.
No back flips required. With my back, they’d kill me. 🙂
The Duchess of Sussex is now a fully fledged member of the worlds 0.1% elite.
Jessica
Lol count me in then.
Sss
Meghan was not born and raised to think her birth and circumstances would be more than enough to compensate for hard work and determination. Only she, and Sophie share this.
Camilla’s anti-FGM work is also excellent (and kept fairly quiet).
Meghan was a 1 percenter when she met Harry … this solidified it.
PS: I bake and can stuff too … lots of people do!
It’s pretty cool.
It’s lovely to long to be a countrywoman when you have a nice mansion in town 🙂
She was a country woman and gave up her life there to be with Charles. I don’t think Clarence House is that much of a consolation to her.
Rosie
Don’t be fooled. Camilla has always lived the posh country life. When Andrew divorced her Charles used that endless duchy money to buy and staff her own country estate. After she married him she spent most of her time there with her family while he stayed at his beloved Highgrove. They both hate city life but do so out of a sense of duty. The life they lead works for them but let’s not pretend they’ve made huge sacrifices.
No, he didn’t. He cannot use Duchy money for personal reasons and Diana took all of his personal cash in the divorce. He even had to borrow personal money from the Queen to cover her demands. Mutual friends of Charles and Camilla bought Ray Mill, APB was likely one of them.
Keep believing that.
Local raw honey makes a lovely gift. I gifted myself some!
Good for allergies as well. My allergist suggested consuming honey made from my region, a local farm, it helps your body adapt to local allergens,
This is a common misconception. Unfortunately, humans tend to be allergic to wind pollinated plants that spread their pollen far and wide in great numbers, not animal pollinated plants that hold onto their pollen for the right visitor.
I would gladly buy a jar of this. Super cool that she has an apiary.
I love that she has her own hives and makes her own honey.
I would love to have my own apiary. Mostly because I like saying “apiary”.
#this. Or #porridge.
Just another reason why I like Charles and Camilla. I live in the country now and we’d love to have bees. Maybe we will someday. We need to plant clover and catmint though. A lot of work for not much yield, but still satisfying.
I think it says a lot about C&C’s character that they love nature, the environment and conservation. More power to that.
Charles has always been concerned about local insect and bee populations. Remember the wildflower meadow at Highgrove 30 years ago? I think he may also have offered to help when the thought-extinct Old English Bee was rediscovered in some church eves in 2012.
This is a fantastic use of her land. And a lovely bonus that it raises money for charity.
This is great! But as someone who worked in a bee research lab for three years, I want to remind people that if you live in North America, honeybees ARE NOT NATIVE. Please, PLEASE, support native wild bees. There are 20 000 species of bees worldwide, but people only pay attention to honeybees (Apis mellifera) which will NEVER go extinct. That would be like cows or chickens going extinct (ain’t gonna happen).
To all you pimento cheese haters, please don’t judge by the crap you find in grocery stores. There is an absolutely fabulous recipe for the spread found in most Southern Living cookbooks. I’ll give you a hint : a dash of hot sauce; diced green olives, and a splash of good sherry; will totally transform this dish and your opinions of a Southern favorite
Her hat game is the best in the Royal Family. I don’t know why.
100% agree. I think she is a fantastic looking older woman. And I don’t mean that to specifically categorize her age but I think she looks better now than the 1970s is all. Her hair, jewelry, makeup etc is always so appropriate and she has the features to pull off the big accessory guns. Dare I say it quite queen-like
Here’s the link to Fortnum and Mason and Camilla’s honey:
https://www.fortnumandmason.com/products/new-duchess-of-cornwall-honey
You can order it. If you scroll down the page you’ll see Highgrove Transylvanian hawthorn Honey.
Does she really tend her own bees? My husband does, and it’s hard to imagine her doing it – kind of messy.