King Charles III traded palace pomp for potting soil on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, when he rolled up his sleeves at a Harlem urban farm — and ended up on the receiving end of a compliment he probably didn’t see coming.
During his afternoon at Harlem Grown’s 134th Street Farm, the King planted lavender and mustard seeds alongside primary school children, fed chickens, peeked into a coop and watched students whip up mango salsa from farm-grown produce. But it was a small, offhand exchange with one student that may end up being the most-quoted moment of the day.
“I like your hair,” the student told the monarch.
“Do you? Good,” Charles replied.
A King in the Cauliflower Beds
The visit, part of Charles’ four-day trip — his first state visit to the U.S. since becoming king — wasn’t built around speeches or sweeping photo ops. Surrounded by beds of freshly planted broccoli and cauliflower, the King skipped formal remarks in favor of one-on-one conversations with kids, staff and volunteers. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, made four state visits to the U.S. during her reign.
Harlem Grown, the nonprofit that hosted him, has transformed 14 abandoned lots across the neighborhood into working urban farms. The organization focuses on increasing access to healthy food for local residents while running educational programs for children. Urban farms like these don’t just feed neighborhoods — they also lower the carbon footprint of food production and help reduce the heat-island effect that bakes city blocks in the summer.
That dovetails neatly with Charles’ decades-long environmental advocacy, which he has championed since 1970. In 2020, he founded the Sustainable Markets Initiative, a CEO-led climate coalition aimed at mobilizing trillions of dollars for climate solutions. Last year, the royal family’s sovereign grant report named “environmental sustainability” a priority.
The Graduate Who Showed Him Around
One of the most memorable hosts of the day was 24-year-old Epiphany Adams, the very first student — and graduate — of the Harlem Grown program. She walked the King through the operation and came away struck by how much he wanted to be there.
“He wanted to come here, like he’s talking to Congress, he has other things to do with the trust and he’s like no, I want to come here, I want to learn about farming, see how it’s done and like for me when I heard that it went from him being King Charles to just Charles,” Adams told ABC7.
Charles has visited Harlem before, but Wednesday marked his first trip to the neighborhood as monarch. He addressed the complex issue of food insecurity in conversation, often referring to farmers as custodians of the land.
A Climate Message in a Shifting Landscape
The Harlem stop landed in the middle of a politically delicate moment. Under President Trump, the U.S. has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement and pushed for more offshore oil and gas drilling. Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency rescinded its endangerment finding, the legal foundation for greenhouse gas regulations. About one-third of U.S. nonprofits saw a disruption in their government funding in the first half of 2025.
Those cuts have rippled into kitchens and classrooms — including Harlem Grown’s. “We understand that there are always going to be challenges. This work is hard, even in the best of circumstances,” said Nicole Engel, executive director of Harlem Grown. “But [programs addressing] food insecurity is something that is being cut right now. It’s being cut at the federal level, but it’s being cut everywhere, which is why it’s so important that we really focus on diversifying how we fund our organization.”
In his address to Congress on Tuesday, Charles leaned into the theme without naming names, urging lawmakers to safeguard nature and warning of “the collapse of critical natural systems.”
Camilla, Pooh and a Little Roo
While the King was uptown, Queen Camilla made history of her own as the first British royal to visit the New York Public Library. She delivered a brand-new Roo doll to the library’s beloved Winnie-the-Pooh collection, joining the original five dolls — Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore and Kanga — that inspired A.A. Milne’s stories. Once owned by Milne’s son, the real-life Christopher Robin, the dolls were donated to the library in 1987. The character of Winnie-the-Pooh turns 100 this year.
Camilla also read “Winnie-the-Pooh” to a group of children and chatted quietly with actress Sarah Jessica Parker as they walked the building, while a massive crowd watched from behind barricades across Fifth Avenue.
The royal couple opened the day by paying respects at the 9/11 memorial downtown and capped it off at Rockefeller Center, where they celebrated 50 years of the King’s Trust, the charity Charles founded in 1976. Global ambassador Lionel Richie spoke at the event.
Back in Harlem, Engel said the spotlight was welcome but the mission won’t change when the cameras leave. “Having this international stage is such a wonderful and beautiful thing,” she said of the visit. “To be able to shed that spotlight on our work is such a gift and a blessing, but this work will be just as important tomorrow, when he’s not here, and we will keep our heads down and keep doing it, because that’s what matters for the community.”