Windy welcome for Camilla as she visits allotment on air base

Camilla visited RAF Leeming where bees and chickens are also kept.

Camilla in a blue dress with her hair blown up by the wind with a serviceman standing in front of her

The Queen enthused about homegrown produce when she met RAF families who have transformed a corner of an Air Force base into a smallholding.

Camilla visited RAF Leeming where bees and chickens are kept and vegetables grown on an allotment – all a stone’s throw from where jet fighters land.

She arrived in blustery, sunny conditions which whipped up her hair as she was greeted by a guard of honour after her plane touched down at the base in North Yorkshire.

Camilla meets three–month–old Rose Stubbings and her mother Harriet in the allotment (Phil Noble/PA)

As she toured the wellness project, which the servicemen and women say provides them with a haven away from their military duties, Camilla told one family “eating fresh eggs, they always taste much better.”

Organisers of the initiative rescued a group of hens from a battery farm when it closed and have also taken on a number of rare breed chickens, with the eggs sold via an honesty box

In a poly-tunnel, families grow a wide range of produce from tomatoes and courgettes to peppers and herbs.

Queen visit RAF Leeming — A flypast overhead as Camilla tours the base (Phil Noble/PA)

Camilla chatted to radar engineer Kyle Hewitt and spoke to his three children about the vegetables grown on the base: “They taste much better if you pull them up and cook them, much better than shop-bought carrots.”

The base is home to a squadron training Qatari airmen alongside UK pilots, the 90 Signals Unit, a cyber-security team, and the Counter Uncrewed Air System (C-UAS), which targets drones and has been working with the French authorities during the Olympics and Paralympics.

Camilla met representatives from 11 Squadron QEAF (Qatar Emiri Air Force), who performed a flypast, and others from the 90 Signals Unit and C-UAS.

Radar technician Liam Barsby, who helps organise the wellness project, said about its benefits: “It makes things a lot better, gives you a lot of things to do in the week and is really positive for your wellbeing.”