From garden to palace: How King Charles’s festive feast starts with homegrown sprouts
Highgrove head chef says Charles ‘protective’ of his Brussels sprouts
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Your support makes all the difference.Love them or hate them, Brussels sprouts remain a staple of Christmas lunches across Britain – including for the royal family.
In fact, the vegetable plays a bigger role in the royal Christmas than one might expect, with the King’s sprouts coming straight from the grounds of his own home.
Charles appeared on a BBC Christmas special of Countryfile, filmed at his Highgrove home, to showcase the work of The King’s Foundation’s education programmes. Countryfile hosts Matt Baker, Margherita Taylor, and Adam Henson met staff as the royal residence was transformed for the festive sea
In the programme, Highgrove’s head gardener, Grainne Ring, showed Baker how he harvests Charles’s Brussels sprouts. The household’s head chef, Luke Windebank, described the King as “protective” of the vegetable.
Mr Windebank said: “His Majesty does enjoy his sprouts, and he’s quite protective of them in the garden.”
Other staff, including the manager of the King’s Duchy Home Farm, spoke of Charles’s involvement in his gardens and described his attention to detail as “second to none.”
The King is known for his green thumb. Constantine Innemee, the Highgrove director of The King’s Foundation, said everything in the gardens reflects Charles’s vision.
He said: “What drew him to the house is it is a place that he could really make his own. Essentially, he had a blank canvas.
“And everything that you see when you’re walking through the gardens is something that he created. It came out of his mind. It was his vision. And I think that sort of template, a blank slate, to be able to start, was something that was quite appealing.”
Mr Innemee added that the King’s personality can be seen “everywhere” in the garden, adding: “I mean, every plant, every tree, every hedge.
“He’s a painter as well. He’s an accomplished artist and I think you see that in the way the gardens are laid out. There’s always something drawing your eye, there’s a composition.”
Melissa Simpson, head of horticulture at The King’s Foundation, said the King still gets “100% involved with the gardens.”
She added: “He’s constantly thinking about the landscape, the garden, the environment, and every element of it, to be honest.”
The King’s Foundation offers education courses for almost 15,000 students annually, and health and wellbeing programmes for nearly 2,000 people each year. It also spearheads placemaking and regeneration projects in the UK and overseas to revitalise communities and historic buildings.
The foundation acts as the custodian of Highgrove Gardens, home to education programmes in traditional and heritage crafts, including the Snowdon School of Furniture and the Metiers d’Art Fellowship in partnership with Chanel and le19M.
The King attended the royal residence for the annual Crafts at Christmas event, where he was presented with creations from the Snowdon School of Furniture students.
He was given a box of baubles created by students on a post-graduate furniture course and marvelled at the square ornaments they had carved from alder, oak, and cedar. Charles joked about needing an “extra-strong tree” after feeling the weight of a bauble.
After hanging a bauble on a Christmas tree outside the Orchard Room, Charles spoke about the “battle” to maintain “timeless skills” to keep traditional crafts alive.
He said: “It’s really trying to maintain the timeless skills, which are always needed really, whatever age we’re in.
“They are all rather disappearing, the battle is trying to keep all the special ones.”
The Countryfile episode follows Charles taking part in a 2023 special of The Repair Shop, where he showcased the work of the students—when the charity was called The Prince’s Foundation—as well as speaking about heritage crafts.
Countryfile Christmas at Highgrove aired on BBC One on Sunday at 5.30pm.