A South Australian farmer and former international journalist says her passion for sustainable agriculture was inspired by her years of contact with the newly crowned King Charles.
On one stand-out day, Dee Nolan was taking a group of readers to the Highgrove estate, owned by the then-Prince, to interview him about organic farming.
Having toured the estate many times, she was leading the tour when the Prince said to her, "Dee, I think you know my farm better than I do".
"It was just that kind of lovely warm comment, that generous comment, I will always remember," Ms Nolan said.
The Naracoorte producer first met Charles in the mid-1990s while working as the editor of You Magazine, a premier food content publication in the United Kingdom with a readership of six million.
At the time, the food climate in the United Kingdom was volatile, with uncertainty around food production due to the prevalence of mad cow disease.
Ms Nolan said there was a fear among people on whether they could trust the source of their food supply.
"At You Magazine, we had very worried readers saying, how do we know whether we can buy beef that we can trust that won't have the mad cow disease in it," she said.
"We started to do a lot of research into food production and ended up at organic farming. With the way animals are farmed in organic farming, there's no danger of mad cow disease."
Ms Nolan first met King Charles after The Magazine began sponsoring organic food awards, and then Prince became a patron of the awards.
She said the then Prince had a saying, "Seeing is believing", which demonstrated his foresight as an environmentalist.
Ahead of the curve
Ms Nolan said King Charles was "ahead of the curve" with the introduction of biological and sustainable farming that he did on his estates in the Cotswolds.
"He opened his farm to selected groups of interested people because he was also pioneering a lot of work in homeopathic treatments for animals, and there would be farm walks with his farm manager," she said.
"I rather cheekily asked if it would be possible if I could take some of my readers to the farm, fully expecting that the answer would be no, but he said yes."
Every year for the four years until Dee left the magazine, she took groups of readers through every summer three or four times to tour the estates.
She said King Charles was always happy to chat with the touring guests, and on many occasions, Ms Nolan would have private tours of the gardens with the pair connecting over their shared passion for farming and the organic world.
"We had many conversations, and they were always very inspiring and warm."
Ms Nolan said the royals have a long history and passion for agriculture, with their family born and raised on big farming estates.
"I was just looking through a book on Highgrove, and there's a wonderful picture of the young Harry and William with one of the farmers delivering a lamb," she said.
"We're also reading a lot now about the late Queen's very deep connection with horses."
"I think everything that King Charles has said and demonstrated is that he has a deep spiritual connection to the countryside. It's very important to him."
Ms Nolan said she learnt a lot from her time with the King.
"Having grown up on the farm where I've now come back to live, farming has always been a very big part of me."
"At the farm, I was really engaged in what I saw not just as organic farming and sustainable farming, not just with his farm, but with the new era of sustainable farmers who I met via him and that connection at the time."
Ms Nolan said the King's passion for the environment stretched further than just farming.
"I was really interested in the work with the rare breed survival trust.
"It's not just the zoo, where there are a few certain endangered breeds, there was a much deeper reason for keeping a lot of those genetics current and it did affect me," she said.
When Dee left journalism, returned home and purchased her old family farm at Naracoorte, she converted much of it to organics, inspired by her time at Cotswolds Highgrove.
"I have a baby doll sheep stud now, and the baby doll sheep was a heritage sheep that very nearly died out," she said.
"That time, very much, instructed sort of how my life went after that."
Ms Nolan said she expected King Charles to be a "knowledgeable and empathetic king", demonstrated through his work with patronage, charities and organisations.
"We just see the public occasions and the photo opportunities, but behind the scenes, they work incredibly closely with those organisations," he said.
Ms Nolan said King Charles had a deep understanding of the human condition through his years of charitable work.
"He's shown his willingness to connect and help over decades, through his commitment to farming, his patronage of sort of Rare Breed trust, of livestock, ensuring that the gene pool doesn't get too small and tight," she said.
"He has a very deep knowledge of the people over which he'll be king."
