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And Finally Artist News
Snoop Dogg congratulates farmer on breaking swede record
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 2 October 2013
Hurrah! It’s the return of our very favourite one-sided friendship – that of award winning vegetable grower Ian Neale of Newport, Wales, and award winning rapper Snoop Dogg of Los Angeles, California.
As you will surely remember, the pair became ‘friends’ back in 2011 when Snoop recorded a video blog congratulating the veteran farmer on growing the world’s heaviest swede. The rapper added that, as he was then due to play a show in Cardiff, he’d like to meet Neale backstage to discuss horticultural techniques.
Amazingly, this actually happened, and the bemused Neale later told reporters of his brief meeting with Snoop Dogg, where they discussed vegetables and smoked weed together. Though on the actual gig, Neale remarked: “I wouldn’t pay to see him. I’m still deaf”.
And there it ended, or so we thought. But it turns out that Snoop is still keeping a keen eye on Neale’s veg growing career. So when, at last week’s Malvern Autumn Show, Neale broke his own heaviest swede world record by a massive 10.4kg (slamming a 54kg swede down on the judging table), as well as taking the British carrot heavyweight title (that’s a 8.35kg carrot), Snoop got back in touch.
Neale told the South Wales Argus: “When Snoop Dogg rang me I didn’t say a lot because I was surprised to hear from him. But he congratulated me – it was a bit weird. He told me his own veg was growing very well”.
The rapper will be pleased to know that Neale is confident he’ll break more records too, saying: “I said in 2011 that I would break the 100 pound [swede] barrier and be the first person on this planet to do this – well here it is. You ask yourself why didn’t it grow bigger, but it is down to the sunlight. If April, May and June had been above average temperatures then it could have been bigger. After the next two shows in Carmarthen and Peterborough I will start all over again. There’s still more to come in 2014”.
Exciting times. Giant veg fans will also be pleased to know that Neale’s website has announced that his record breaking swede is going to be in a film. That is literally all the website says, but there is a nice picture of him and it together.
