Royal fans speculate about awkward mistake in Meghan Markle’s ‘garden haul’ of vegetables

Meghan Markle has shared a wholesome picture of a ‘garden haul’ of fruit and vegetables – but royal fans have already noticed something unusual about them.

The Duchess of Sussex, 43, posted a sweet image of the Sussexes’ beagle Mia sniffing a basket of fresh produce seemingly grown in the garden of her Montecito mansion in California.

Referring to Mia, who the Sussexes rescued in 2022, Meghan captioned her post: ‘The unofficial quality inspector of this morning’s garden haul.’ 

Mia buried her face in the ‘haul’ comprising of broccoli, carrots, corn, red peppers and squash as well as spring onions and an assortment of fresh herbs. 

But eagle-eyed social media users immediately claimed there was something suspicious about her fruit and veg, including a lack of any mud on them and the time of year they were picked.

One follower wrote: ‘Huh. She’s so good at gardening she can grow all things from all seasons at once’. 

Taking note of the squeaky-clean vegetables, another critic noted there wasn’t even a ‘speck of dirt’ on any of the food, despite appearing to be freshly picked.

‘I’ve never seen vegetables so clean after harvesting’, another said. 

Others noted that, in California, May could be too early in the year to harvest several crops. Some even speculated that Meghan could have gone to a local supermarket or Farmer’s Market instead. 

‘And everything is perfectly clean. She is also the only person outside of the US Cornbelt to harvest corn in MAY?’, one wrote.

Another said: ‘The only place I see all that in season is the grocery store produce section’

A third critic said: ‘It’s way too early in the season for most of those vegetables to be grown in her garden and ready to pick’.

‘Who is harvesting corn in May? It’s pretty early for squash and peppers too’, a fourth said.

Another critic asked: ‘No dirt?’

According to the California Farmland Trust, sweetcorn is typically harvested from June to September – meaning it may be slightly too early for Meghan to have grown her own at her Montecito home, in the Santa Barbara county. 

By contrast, broccoli is harvested much earlier in the year, according to the Vegetable Research and Information Centre. 

Spring onions, bell peppers, carrots and certain types of squash may now be ripe for harvesting.  

The latest post on As Ever’s social media page comes one day after Meghan revealed she plans to ‘step back to assess’ what the lifestyle brand had achieved in its first year – and what it could become in the future. 

Meghan, who unveiled the company at the start of the year, recently revealed she may never restock her famous jam – one of the many homely products she sold under the As Ever brand – in an interview with The Fast Company. 

The Duchess was speaking about her business and balancing work with motherhood as the first series of her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, drew to a close yesterday. 

Asked about As Ever, Meghan said she would ‘step back, gather data from the launch, and figure out exactly what’ the company’s future holds – as she confirmed new products won’t go live until the first quarter of 2026. 

Meghan also revealed the surprising turn As Ever could take – hinting at a future step into the fashion industry that she deemed an ‘interesting space for me’.

The inaugural run of As Ever products, such as honey, jams and teas, sold out within 45 minutes of the launch. 

Her previous store also sold out in 45 minutes and contained homely items as well as her long-awaited pots of jam.

Meghan and Harry’s rescue, beagle Mia, was first seen in the family’s Christmas card last December. 

Among six pictures included in the festive greetings card was one which featured the Sussexes with their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, as well as their rescue dogs including Mia, beloved beagle Guy – who passed away earlier this year – and their labrador Pula. 

Nine-year-old Mia was rescued by the couple from an animal testing centre in 2022. The pup was one of 4,000 dogs bred for Envigo breeding and research facility in Virginia. Mia had arrived at the rescue centre having just given birth to eight puppies.

The dogs had been bred for pharmaceutical and biotech research – but inspections of the centre had found dozens of violations of federal law over a two year period.

Animal lover Meghan has adopted a number of rescue dogs over the past few years and brought her American rescue beagle Guy to the UK when she married Harry.

Also in the picture was the couple’s black Lab, Pula, who was introduced to the family ahead of Archie’s birth in 2019.

The pooch’s unique name is the currency in Botswana, a country the couple visited in the early days of their relationship.

Though not included in their greetings card, the Sussexes also own several rescue chickens, who live with them at their $14m, seven-acre mansion in Montecito, California.

Meghan’s latest As Ever post comes one day after the Duchess released the eighth and final episode of her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, featuring Spanx entrepreneur Sara Blakely. 

Promoting the podcast and As Ever, Meghan told The Fast Company that she wouldn’t know ‘what to call herself’ if she had to write a resume. 

She said: ‘If I had to write a résumé, I don’t know what I would call myself.

‘I think it speaks to this chapter many of us find ourselves in, where none of us are one note. But I believe all the notes I am playing are part of the same song.’

Meghan added that the ‘mom moments’ push her to success in the business world, with plans in the future ranging from home goods to fashion.

Revealing her son Archie has begun to lose his teeth, she described becoming the tooth fairy and leaving coins and a little dinosaur underneath his pillow.

She said: ‘I had a lot of business meetings the next morning, but I still chose to cuddle with him the rest of the night. Those mom moments energise me to be a better founder, a better employer, a better boss.’

An elderly neighbour allegedly knocked at Meghan Markle and Prince Harry‘s Montecito mansion to personally hand over a documentary on the area to the former actress – but ‘never got past the gate,’ it was claimed today.

The unnamed California local historian had apparently wanted the Duchess of Sussex to have a copy after she moved to the area with her royal husband in 2020.

Fellow neighbour and local journalist Richard Mineards has claimed that the anecdote reveals how ‘distant’ Meghan has become in the $14.7million home she shares with Harry, Archie and Lilibet.

‘She cultivates a very controlled image. She pays attention to every appearance, every word, every gesture. And here in Montecito, we appreciate simple people, even famous ones.

‘Oprah Winfrey, for example, shows up at charity events. Meghan doesn’t play the community game,’ he said.

Speaking to Ici Paris, Mr Mineards, a journalist living in the celebrity-heavy enclave of Santa Barbara, claims Meghan has ‘never tried to fit in’ in Montecito.

‘There was even this anecdote of an elderly neighbour who wanted to give her a documentary he had made on local history. The old man never got past the gate,’ he said.

But in contrast, Harry is considered the much warmer of the two, he claims.

‘He is always charming, approachable, with that very recognisable Windsor accent. He smiles, shakes hands, willingly exchanges a few words’, he said.

‘We’ve seen him at the beach, in an organic coffee shop, or cycling in the hills.’

He is ‘less in control’ and more natural than his wife Meghan.

‘Harry has kept his good-natured side. We feel that he is more at ease here, even with his personal struggles’, Mr Mineards said.

He went on: “Meghan, on the other hand, is practically invisible. She’s there, of course, but she shows herself very little. Her relationship with Montecito is… distant, shall we say’.

A spokesman for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has declined to comment. 

Meghan has given a number of interviews and also released her own new podcast where she has spoken about family life in Montecito.

But she was immediately ribbed for making the school run with a nanny on hand sound ‘akin to climbing Everest and curing cancer at the summit’.

Working parents lampooned the Duchess of Sussex for her earnest description of her morning routine with Archie, five, and Lilibet, three.

Meghan also revealed she has used an ‘amazing’ nanny for five years – who steps in when she has early meetings – after she admitted ‘juggling’ work and motherhood had been ‘very overwhelming’.

The former Suits star told her friend Jamie Kern Lima that she wakes at 6.30am and after getting the children dressed, fed and to their two different schools, she isn’t back at her £11million Montecito mansion until two-and-half hours after getting up.

‘I know. That’s morning. That’s the morning’, she said breathlessly.

She also revealed how she goes to yoga and fitness classes with 40 to 50 others – sometimes on her own or with friends – and she recently greeted a stranger next to her with a fist bump and a ‘well done’.

Meghan said: ‘Once you know us, I think you want us to have the same normalcy as parents and for our children as they do, despite however unique our situation is.’

‘I have a couple of girlfriends up here – these are stay-at-home moms and working women with normal jobs, not in the public eye,’ the Duchess of Sussex, 43, told People of her life in California.

‘We went from just connecting through our kids to having girls’ nights out or doing Pilates together.’

One mother from the school run has said Meghan recently came to a child’s birthday party where she was ‘chilling’ with parents and talked about ‘mom stuff’.

But neighbours including Mr Mineards, who works for the local Montecito Journal and writes its Grapevine gossip column, have claimed that Meghan is not seen out that often.

One claimed recently that the Duchess of Sussex is more aloof than her husband, who is ‘jolly’ but not fully involved with the locals either.

Neighbours in Montecito have spoken about the couple’s life there – and admit they don’t often see them, unless Harry is on his bike followed by his security team. 

There have also been questions about their ‘elitist’ lifestyle.

Royal commentator Duncan Larcombe said: ‘They are the public couple that claim to crave privacy and that I suppose would involve the local community. But when you have young children, they all mix with other young children at schools or nurseries’.

He told the Mirror: ‘Are they going to play the role of just another parent?’

Last year MailOnline revealed how Prince Harry spends his time pootling on his bike followed a security team in a Range Rover and walks his dog alone on the beach when not in the home office he shares with Meghan Markle or doing his daily meditations.

When away from his computer Harry speaks with staff and walks his garden enjoying the birds sandwiched between taking Archie to and from school. There is a long meditation in his diary each day – and often a workout with a personal trainer. 

One declared: ‘They keep themselves to themselves. I haven’t seen Harry around much. Normally when you see him around here, he’s walking his Labrador on the beach or on his bicycle followed by his security in a Range Rover’. 

Outside the confines of their mansion, he enjoys a solo bike ride on his own with his bodyguards following behind or alongside in their SUV – part of the biggest security team in the area, one local said.

There are mixed reports about his happiness. 

One ally recently said Harry is ‘doing great’ – but others claim he has become an ‘angry boy’ who is ‘more and more isolated in California’.

Meghan appears to stick to a small and loyal group of friends. She is said to have joined a local mahjong group, stops to speak to locals in the street or shops and has bonded with other celeb-locals.

The Sussexes do venture out together from time to time. They enjoy date nights together at the local steakhouse named Lucky’s or pop out for an Italian meal at Tre Lune where a margherita pizza is $24 and spaghetti and meatballs is $35.

Harry and Meghan have been accused of hypocrisy while enjoying an ‘elitist’ lifestyle in the United States in a German documentary, released in December last year.

‘Harry: The Lost Prince’ includes damning criticism of the couple’s attempts to build a new life for themselves in the US as charity activists and campaigners since leaving the Royal family. 

The programme was critical of their much-publicised visits to poverty-stricken countries such as Nigeria and Colombia sits uneasily with Meghan’s love of expensive designer clothes. 

One stinging voice in the documentary was former soldier Ben McBean, who lost his left arm and had his right leg amputated above the knee after being seriously injured by a landmine blast in Afghanistan in 2008. 

McBean who shared a flight home from Afghanistan with Harry, did not hold back in criticising the prince over his revelations about his family in his bombshell memoir Spare and in his Netflix show. 

The veteran soldier says: ‘I just thought, with him kind of whinging about his family and he was saying something about his brother pushing him over or something like that, I was just like, “Mate, just leave it out”.

‘You and your brother had a little fisticuffs… but family’s family, you know. 

‘If one of my friends fell out with his partner and started posting things on social media and saying my ex is this and that, I’d have told him to shut up as well.’