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Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh resumed her fall schedule this week with a visit to northern England—though for one of the hardest-working members of the royal family, the summer break was never much of one to begin with. Dressed in a chestnut blazer from British label Me+Em, the Duchess of Edinburgh visited Home Grown Here, a grower-owned co-operative and local food marketplace in Cumbria, on Tuesday to learn about community-led approaches to sustainable food production and local supply chains.
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The Duchess of Edinburgh onsite at Home Grown Here’s farm.
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The visit to Home Grown Here was one of several stops on a packed two-day program focused on the rural economy and young people in agriculture. Sophie, who has been patron of the Addington Fund since 2021, also officially opened a program designed to help first-generation farmers secure tenancies and establish a foothold in the industry, per ITV. She also met representatives from the Royal Countryside Fund.
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Sophie packaging mixed salad leaves during her visit to Home Grown Here.
The Cumbria visit is consistent with Sophie’s longtime interest in British agriculture, and she counts many food and farming organizations among her royal patronages. For example, as patron of the Association of Show and Agricultural Organizations since 2012, she attended the Royal Welsh Show in July, a four-day event covering everything from livestock and equine competitions to food, horticulture, and rural skills demonstrations.
The Duchess also published a rare personal essay this summer in The Yorkshire Post making the case for Britain’s agricultural shows. “Agricultural shows are a place where town can meet country, bridging the gap between what is perceived and what is real. They are a looking-glass into the lives of our rural community who work so hard to provide for us, while trying to make a living for themselves.”
Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.