Prince Charles and Camilla touch down to S.F.

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A down-to-earth visit by a royal highness
Tour by Charles and wife to focus on organic farming

Julian Guthrie, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, November 4, 2005

The royals in the Bay Area. Associated Press photo by Mat... The Edible Schoolyard at Martin Luther King Middle School...

England's Prince Charles and his new wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are to arrive in San Francisco tonight for a meticulously choreographed four-day visit that combines the earthy with the glitzy -- organic farmers with power brokers.

It will be the first British royal visit to the Bay Area since Prince Andrew was here for several days in 1997.

Amid gawking and gossip and layer upon layer of security, the royal couple will take in a small country church in Marin County, a zany musical revue, San Francisco's Ferry Building and a model homeless center in the heart of the Tenderloin.

The trip to the United States is the first visit overseas by Charles and Camilla as a married couple. It is being billed as a testament to the ties that bind the two countries: political, cultural, economic and environmental.

It is also an effort to showcase the substantive side of Charles, whose environmentalism, organic farming and philanthropy get obscured by snippy reports on his handsome sons, Harry and William; his glamorous first wife, the late Princess Diana; and his less glamorous second wife, his longtime friend and former mistress.

Martin Uden, the British consul general in San Francisco, understands the curiosity but believes Charles is misunderstood.

"He is a businessman farmer and does an enormous amount of charitable work," said Uden, who met Charles when he was working at the British Embassy in Bonn, Germany. "He is not just lending his name, either. He really gets in there."

The Prince of Wales, who turns 57 on Nov. 14 and whose full name is Charles Philip Arthur George Windsor, runs a nonprofit organization called the Prince's Charities that raises more than $200 million a year for 16 programs ranging from education to holistic health. He created an organic farm on his estate at Highgrove in 1985, when the movement was in its infancy. And he launched a high-end line of organic products called Duchy Originals that now brings in $71 million a year.

Uden does not agree with the contention by some royal watchers that the hop across the pond is part of a royal plan to boost the couple's popularity and gain acceptance for Camilla as the future queen.

"That certainly wasn't in my planning," Uden said. "My job is to make sure the visit goes well and the objectives are met. If it helps create a good positive image, that's great."

Uden said that once it was decided the couple would visit the United States, there was a desire for "geographical balance." Planning for the trip began immediately after the couple's wedding in early April, Uden said.

Charles and Camilla arrived in New York on Tuesday. They toured ground zero, met with Secretary-General Kofi Annan of the United Nations, partied with the musician Sting and dined with celebrities including Sarah Jessica Parker. On Wednesday they traveled to Washington, D.C., where they attended a seminar on osteoporosis -- one of Camilla's causes -- and attended a formal state dinner at the White House with the president and first lady.

They are expected to travel today from Washington to New Orleans to meet with victims of Hurricane Katrina before arriving in San Francisco.

For the last leg of the royal highnesses' visit, Uden looked at "what is important to the prince. What matters to him are issues of sustainability and the environment. So we naturally wanted him to see local organic farming."

Uden said that it also was important to highlight other strengths of the Bay Area, including innovations in technology and in turning around homelessness.

The largest part of the visit will be devoted to Charles' passion: organic farming. He and Camilla will spend Saturday morning at the farmers' market in Point Reyes Station in Marin County and then have lunch in the coastal hamlet of Bolinas with local farmers and producers.

Helge Hellberg, executive director of Marin Organic, an association of organic producers, will lead the prince on the Saturday tour. Hellberg said he wants to share with Charles the "efforts going back 30-plus years of people who have poured their hearts into forging a new relationship with the land."

Hellberg attended an environmental conference called Terre Madre in Turin, Italy, in October 2004. Charles was the keynote speaker.

In the speech, Charles told the gathering, "I have always believed that agriculture is not only the oldest, but also the most important of humanity's productive activities."

Hellberg said that people at the conference immediately began to say, "Gee, wouldn't it be great if he came to our area?"

The royal couple will travel from the farmers' market to a small luncheon with Warren Weber, a leader in the Bay Area organic movement. Weber's Star Route Farms is the oldest certified organic farm in California.

Weber said that much of what he learned about organic farming came from soil experts in England.

"Most organic farmers here followed organic farming ideas developed in Britain by the Soil Association," Weber said of the United Kingdom's largest organic certification body. "Certainly in the '70s, when we were starting, we looked to the Soil Association for literature and ideas. We were students. Now they're coming here. It's full circle."

Patrick Holden, the Soil Association's director, has been traveling with Charles and Camilla and will be in the Bay Area over the weekend. A private concert given by Sting on Wednesday night was attended by Charles and Camilla and benefited the Soil Association, which was founded nearly 60 years ago. Charles is the patron of the association and has pledged to raise about $35 million to expand the program.

"He is actually an approachable man," Holden said of Charles. "Of course, it's quite difficult to make his close acquaintance because there are layers of protection around him."

On Sunday, Charles and Camilla are scheduled to attend church in Marin County, although the location was not disclosed. They will take in an evening performance of "Beach Blanket Babylon," the hat-centric revue started by Steve Silver in 1974.

Producer Jo Schuman Silver said minor modifications have been made for Sunday's show.

"The Queen of England has been in the show since the beginning," Schuman Silver said. "She will not be a character. We will not parody the royal family. Of course, what we do is a gentle parody."

Charles follows in his mother's footsteps in attending a performance of "Beach Blanket." Queen Elizabeth II visited the Bay Area in 1983 and saw the show at Symphony Hall.

On Monday morning, Charles and Camilla will head to the East Bay to visit the Edible Schoolyard, an educational program founded in 1994 by renowned chef Alice Waters. They will then head back to the city, where the prince will give a speech to environmentalists at the Ferry Building.

On Monday night, Charles and Camilla will attend a black-tie dinner at the new M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park. The dinner will be hosted by the mayor's office and the British consulate.

The event will be held in the Piazzoni murals room and will be attended by about 60 people. The guests include a mix of high society and high technology, from Ann and Gordon Getty to Steve Jobs.

Alice Waters, who will have spent the morning with the royals at the Edible Schoolyard at Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley, also will oversee the dinner at the de Young.

Waters said she has been closely connected to the organic food movement in England for several years. She dined with Charles at the 2004 Terra Madre conference.

"This movement is not a small thing that's happening in Northern California," Waters said. "It's a global picture we need to clarify for people. Prince Charles brings a kind of legitimacy to our work."

For the dinner, she plans to do what she has always done: emphasize local, organically produced food.

"We want to give him a sense of being here in Northern California at the beginning of November," Waters said.

She said the fare will include a Sonoma goat cheese souffle, a heritage turkey and grass-fed beef. For dessert, Waters will serve a Sierra beauty apple tart.

Finally, before heading back on Tuesday, Charles and Camilla will have a true San Francisco experience: They will visit a heralded program at the Empress Hotel in the Tenderloin that provides permanent supportive housing to more than 500 formerly homeless people.

The best chances for the public to catch a glimpse of the royals are likely to be at the Point Reyes Station Farmers' Market on Saturday and the Ferry Building in San Francisco on Monday.
Saturday

1 Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, visit the Point Reyes farmers' market at Point Reyes Station.

2 Lunch with representatives of the local farming community at an organic farm in Marin County.

Sunday

3 Attend church in Marin County and travel to San Francisco for a performance of "Beach Blanket Babylon" at Club Fugazi.

Monday

4 Meet children growing produce and cooking food at the "Edible Schoolyard," Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, Berkeley.

5 Charles gives a speech at a seminar on environmental issues at the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

6 The couple attend a dinner hosted by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and the British consul general at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco.

Tuesday

7 Meet people being helped by a project to tackle homelessness at the Empress Hotel in San Francisco.

Source: ESRI, TeleAtlas

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