Green-fingered Prince Charles sees his organic dream sprout

organic in January. Now Home Farm, a quarter of a mile away on the 2,000acre property, is to follow suit.

The Scottish Organic Producers Association is expected to certify the commercial farm, with plans to market organic lamb in September 2019 and beef from summer 2020.

Charles converted the 900 acres at Highgrove, Gloucestershire, to organic farming in 1986.

He was initially criticised for some of his methods, which have included ‘ biodynamic’ farming — planting crops according to the signs of the zodiac — and treating his cattle with homeopathic medicine. Since then, however, a significant number of farms have gone organic and visit Highgrove to review the methods there.

Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association, declared in 2006: ‘I don’t think it can be overestimated how much that was due to Prince Charles’s influence.’

PRINCE Charles has received an early birthday present. I hear that the heir to the throne, who turns 70 next month, has been told his Scottish estate is to win organic status.

The 800-acre farm at his beloved Dumfries House is to be certified as organic in January.

Highgrove’s own similarly named Home Farm — where the Prince first developed his at-the-time unfashionable organic practices — is only 100 acres larger.

The organic certification at Dumfries House is being described as ‘a major element’ of Charles’s vision for the East Ayrshire site, which he saved for the nation in 2007 for a princely £45 million, a sum which has since been paid back through private donations.

The Kauffman Education Gardens, where thousands of schoolchildren each year learn about cultivating and cooking vegetables — including no doubt the Prince’s favourite, the humble Brussels sprout — was declared