Meghan Markle's photograph of a garden haul of fruit and vegetables on social media, featuring the Sussexes' beagle Mia inspecting a basket of fresh produce has raised eyebrows amongst some royal watchers.

The Duchess of Sussex, 43, posted the image showing vegetables 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."

The photograph shows Mia with her face buried in the basket, which contained broccoli, carrots, corn, red peppers and squash as well as spring onions and an assortment of fresh herbs.

Meghan Markle's photograph of a garden haul of fruit and vegetables on social media, featuring the Sussexes' beagle Mia inspecting a basket of fresh produce has raised eyebrows amongst some royal watchers.

The post appeared on As Ever's social media page.

Eagle-eyed social media users immediately claimed there was something suspicious about the fruit and vegetables, 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.

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

"I've never seen vegetables so clean after harvesting" another said.

Others 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.

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

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.

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 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 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 garden haul photograph represents one of the brand's recent social media activities during this assessment period.