POINT REYES STATION -- With a crowd looking on and cheering, Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, began their official visit to Northern California Saturday morning with a tour of the farmers' market in Point Reyes Station in Marin County.

Fittingly as Charles and Camilla and their entourage began their tour, they were serenaded by the moos of cows and the crow of a rooster.

The attire was far different than most Saturdays at Toby's Feed Barn with many visitors dressed in suits including Prince Charles. He and Camilla toured booths of locally grown flowers and vegetables at the farmer's market, which had its official season, lengthened one week for the short Royal visit.

The the Royal couple was then on to have lunch in the coastal community of Bolinas, where they planned to lunch at Star Route Farms run by organic pioneer Warren Weber.

The prince is a firm supporter of environmental causes and runs an organic farm on his Highgrove estate in England. He also has a multimillion-dollar line of organic foods, Duchy Originals, whose profits go to charity.

"We're excited because it takes our message into the world," said Helge Hellberg, executive director of the farming association Marin Organic. "It's not just royalty or a celebrity coming, it's somebody who stands for what we are doing."

In Bolinas, the Royal couple will find a fiercely independent outpost of artists, farmers, fishermen and vintage hippies perched on the tip of a peninsula jutting into the Pacific about 30 miles north of San Francisco.

A majestic spot in its own right, Bolinas has it all -- picturesque buildings cuddled up to a wide sweep of coast, all backed by the sturdy green shoulders of Mount Tamalpais, affectionately known as Mount Tam.

The cool, coastal climate has also helped create a thriving organic scene, which is what attracted Charles, who is the San Francisco Bay area on his first overseas trip with his new wife Camilla.

Agrarian issues are obviously high on the prince's agenda. His visit is largely skipping the stratosphere of San Francisco high society for down-to-earth pursuits. On Monday, Charles is to visit a Berkeley school organic garden sponsored by noted chef Alice Waters.

Still, it's a bit mind-boggling to imagine a royal in stubbornly iconoclastic Bolinas.

In a neat piece of irony, the town is probably best known for its disappearing highway signs, which have been torn down, defaced and painted over a number of times by a merry band of locals known as the Bolinas Border Patrol.

Adding to Bolinas' image as a community that aspires to be the town that time, or at least time-share developers, forgot is a 34-year moratorium on new connections to the water supply, a restriction locals say is crucial for a small town with limited resources.

The Bolinas Community Land Trust recently auctioned off a water meter it bought with a condemned house and drew inquiries from two dozen would-be buyers looking for the chance to build. Officials hoped to get $500,000 for the connection -- just the connection -- but eventually got $310,000, which is going toward converting existing structures in Bolinas to affordable housing.

The auction -- not to mention a visit by the heir to the British throne -- underscores the fact that Bolinas has escaped neither the attention of the well-to-do nor the San Francisco Bay area's crazy real estate prices.

"This is such a beautiful place and it's such a special place that it was inevitable that it would get discovered. Bolinas has, in a sense, been outed," said Deane.

Still, residents have maintained their flair for the eccentric. Two years ago, they passed Measure G, a rambling, poetic declaration affirming the town's affection for nature, including blueberries, bears ... and skunks.

The town's prickly side was evident on a visit this week.

"I don't think anyone here's going to talk to you," a woman at the Bolinas People's Store said forbiddingly.

But for all that, there is tourism in Bolinas.

Visitors and locals coexist at Smiley's, a local landmark said to have thrived during Prohibition as a barber shop with a back door through which customers could walk to obtain a little hair of the dog.

Charles is welcome for a pint, said Deane, although it seemed unlikely the prince would be wandering through downtown.

Organic grower Peter Martinelli of Fresh Run Farm was also looking forward to the visit.

"I think it's really great," said Martinelli, who was impressed when he heard Charles speak in Italy last year. "He really encapsulates the organic and the sustainable movement."

As for the general lack of hoopla, Martinelli laughed.

"It's Bolinas," he said. "We don't clean our room before mom comes over. It just is what it is."