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Daily Mail
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The TRUTH about Ballerina Farm... and what it's really like behind the scenes
Hannah Neeleman, known to her nearly 20 million followers by Ballerina Farm, perhaps became the most famous 'tradwife' in the world after a Sunday Times interview controversially labeled her the 'most well-known' of this particular brand of influencers. The social media star and entrepreneur lives on a 328-acre farm in Kamas, Utah, with her husband, Jet Blue scion Daniel, 35, and their eight children, showing their everyday life online to their large collective following. Raised in a large Mormon family in Utah, Hannah was the eighth of nine children. Though she trained as a ballerina at Julliard, hence the name, she gave up dancing professionally shortly after graduation, instead choosing to pursue a family and farming. Online, Hannah is primarily known for her aesthetically pleasing videos in the kitchen, where she whips up elaborate, homemade meals for her family. She shows followers how she makes herbed spaghetti, mixing the flour and egg by hand and then stretching it in her KitchenAid pasta attachment, or making raspberry jam from scratch. As their farm has grown, the Neelemans have built a booming business around their brand, selling everything from $67 Farmer Protein Powder to $44 sourdough kits, and various homemade spreads and seasonings. Customers can also buy frozen goods, like chocolate croissants, as well as cuts of meat, which comes from their farm and their sister farms throughout the US. They have their own meat processing facility in Springville, Utah. Neeleman's videos are captivating to her audience, to put it lightly. The idyllic life she portrays through her content seems to elicit an awed reaction from many, while others watch through a critical lens, unable to look away. Last year, the family weathered a media storm after the piece published in The Times of London titled, 'Meet the queen of the 'trad wives' (and her eight children).' The story highlighted certain complexities of Hannah's lifestyle, painting a particular picture about her relationship with her husband, parenting, her Mormon faith, and her career as a professional dancer. The writer implied Hannah was living a life that she didn't enjoy, or worse - one that she didn't choose. For her part, Hannah addressed the controversy afterward, telling viewers she felt like the piece was an 'attack on her family.' She claimed that it portrayed her as 'oppressed,' with her husband being the 'culprit.' She'd already refuted the 'tradwife' title, telling The Times she didn't 'identify with it' because although she is married and has children, she feels like she and Daniel are 'paving a lot of paths that haven't been paved before.' The Daily Mail visited Ballerina Farm in Utah - where we saw for ourselves what it's really like on the TikTok-famous farm. To perhaps the surprise of some viewers, and especially their most outspoken critics, the Neelemans are running a full-fledged business empire - and there's a lot more than meets the eye to both the brand and the couple themselves. During the Daily Mail's time in Utah, we traveled to the couple's new brick-and-mortar market, and had the opportunity to go on a private tour of their farm, led by Hannah and Jonathan Curley, their director of agriculture. The farm, which is nestled right in the Utah mountains, is vast and houses a red barn emblazoned with 'Ballerina Farm.' The sprawling land is home to 120 dairy cows and 150 cows total, who go out to pasture as often as they want and are milked whenever feels necessary - sometimes by hand, and sometimes by the couple's contact-sensing Lely robot. Jonathan and the Neelemans work as a team when it comes to the dairy. According to Hannah, a nutritionist comes in for the cows once a month, and tells the couple what to add to the cow's diets for the creamiest milk possible. Recently, it's been cotton seed. The farm was surprisingly quiet too, as Hannah and Jonathan explained that this is how a dairy should be. We learned that cows that moo are actually in need of something, and it's better to have a calm dairy. 'Daniel and I and the Ballerina Farm team, we do nothing halfway,' Hannah told the Daily Mail, after feeding us farm-fresh butter, fresh-baked croissants, which tasted like they were from a bakery in Paris, and a homemade orange seltzer. Lunch was a delightful mix of Ballerina Farm beef kofta with olives, pickled red onions and tossed parsley, as well as sugar snap peas and ricotta, salad, and glazed carrots and hummus. The farm was surprisingly quiet too, as Hannah and Jonathan explained that this is how a dairy should be The sprawling land is home to 120 dairy cows and 150 cows total, who go out to pasture as often as they want and are milked whenever feels necessary - sometimes by hand, and sometimes by the couple's contact-sensing Lely robot We were treated to an array of delicious food while we were on the farm, including a homemade orange seltzer 'We really try to provide products that are sourced in a way that's beautiful and direct and also, we want to be able to offer people delicious food,' she continued. 'I think people will think what they want to think, I guess, but when they come to our stores, our physical spaces, we want them to feel that love and intention.' Despite Ballerina Farm's booming success, one product continues to spark controversy - the raw milk they sell that has not been pasteurized to kill harmful bacteria. The polarizing product has stirred debate online, with heated discussions often playing out in the comments of Hannah's videos. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, consuming raw milk, which has become a trendy product among influencers and celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, can lead to 'serious health risks.' Despite the health risks, Hannah defends the sale of Ballerina Farm's raw milk, which the farm says is tested every day. 'There are so many benefits to raw milk nutritionally,' she told the Daily Mail, adding: 'But it does need to be produced in a very clean environment, and the cows need to be clean, and you have to make sure that every step of the way is just monitored.' 'We have an amazing team that's, like, so meticulous… so it's really fun being able to stand with total confidence behind the milk, and people are excited about it,' she added. However, Hannah did share that she feels a lot of milk today 'still needs to be pasteurized.' 'We have an amazing team that's, like, so meticulous… so it's really fun being able to stand with total confidence behind the milk, and people are excited about it,' she added 'I feel like if you're able to find farms that are local and small, and have good procedures, then I stand by raw, I think it's so great. But honestly, we love all milk. If we're out and about and we can only get pasteurized, like, we definitely drink it,' she shared. Last summer, Cleveland Clinic warned about the health risks that come along with drinking raw milk, such as salmonella, and Listeria monocytogenes. In addition, it can also put you at risk for avian flu, which has been on the rise over the past year. Though, not everything they sell is raw. Their team pasteurizes some of their other milk products, like their chocolate milk, as well as their yogurt, butter, and cheese. 'When we started farming, it was a whole new energy in life that we found, because there is something so beautiful about raising your own food,' Hannah said. 'The energy and passion comes from what we do.' Hannah explained that when she and Daniel first got married, just months after they began dating, she could tell that his heart was in agriculture. 'When we first got married, I really could tell that his love was with animals. It was every weekend or every night that he had off, he was going to tour a farm, or meet with farmers,' Hannah described to the Daily Mail of her husband. 'He learns a lot from farmers and from people we met along the way. That was the highlight of our trips to Europe, and to Maine, just meeting the people that are growing their own food and how they're doing it,' she continued. When they bought their first farm in Spanish Fork, Utah, which tragically burned down in 2018, Hannah said that the farmer they purchased it from 'really took Daniel under his wing,' teaching him about irrigation, building fences, and the health of the animals. 'He learns a lot from farmers and from people we met along the way. That was the highlight of our trips to Europe, and to Maine, just meeting the people that are growing their own food and how they're doing it,' she continued Upon returning from our trip to Utah, it was clear Ballerina Farm is not just a frilly 'tradwife' business, or just operating under a TikTok bubble strictly limited to her aesthetically-pleasing content - it's a real business entity, and a brand that the family has big plans for 'There have just been so many people in our lives that have taught us, and we're always learning too, we love traveling and going to farms, because in a way, they're life-changing, every farm visit,' Hannah said. As for the future of Ballerina Farm? The couple has big dreams. In the next few years, Hannah and Daniel want to open an agricultural tourism site on their farm, where visitors can experience a microdairy, chickens, a market garden, and farm stand. They also have plans to build out a creamery. 'We just want to be able to give our community part of Ballerina Farm in a way that's really thought-out and beneficial, educating,' Hannah shared. Now, the couple are expanding their business to their first brick-and-mortar storefront in Midway, set to open this June. Daily Mail got a sneak preview of the store, which was stocked with all of their own products, including their meat, as well as a curated selection of items that they love. In addition to buying groceries, you can also buy fresh-baked goods and sandwiches. Upon returning from our trip to Utah, it was clear Ballerina Farm is not just a frilly 'tradwife' business, or just operating under a TikTok bubble strictly limited to her aesthetically-pleasing content - it's a real business entity, and a brand that the family has big plans for. Although Daniel's family is worth an estimated $400 million, the couple appears to be self-sufficient, just as they've always dreamed - though the brand declined to disclose sales numbers to the Daily Mail. As for Hannah, we didn't see a woman who is oppressed, but rather a serious entrepreneur. With such a huge following, controversy and the occasional backlash is inevitable, but it's clear Ballerina Farm will be just fine either way.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Yahoo
Judge denies request for more testimony as Kouri Richins' case moves ‘full speed ahead' to trial
A judge on Friday ruled against letting Kouri Richins' attorneys question more detectives. Attorneys for Richins — a Kamas mom accused of killing her husband and then writing a children's book about grief — had asked the court to reopen the opportunity for testimony about what evidence should be presented at trial, including audio from an interview along with cellphone and electronic data. The defense attorneys claimed there were problems with a state's witness testimony at a recent hearing. Summit County prosecutors called the request "a cheap litigation trick" and claimed the request was based on feelings rather than fact. Prosecutors explained that although one officer testified about not knowing Richins had an attorney, another officer when preparing for the hearing had said he did know she had an attorney. In response to prosecutors calling the defense attorneys' request "desperate" and "poppycock," Richins' attorneys said they "will not sink to that level, and we will continue to do what we must to protect our client's rights and hold the prosecution accountable for their actions." Richins' attorney Kathryn Nester said a summary provided to the defense team by prosecutors said three witnesses had relayed conversations about whether or not Richins could be interviewed. Third District Judge Richard Mrazik said during a hearing on Friday that regardless of whether the officers knew Richins had an attorney, the interview did not violate her Sixth Amendment rights. He said the discussion of what the officer knew is irrelevant to the Sixth Amendment because prosecutors had not yet filed charges or committed to prosecuting her. He said this is a different question than her Fifth Amendment rights, which concern whether she had a right to counsel. Richins' attorneys at the hearing on Friday said prosecutors and officers discussed whether to interview Richins on that day, which she claimed also breached attorney conduct rules. Mrazik said they could talk about that aspect again in court, but he would need her to provide Utah case law about it first. During the hearing, attorneys also discussed the jury questionnaire in detail, but the judge said it would not be sent out yet because Richins' attorneys plan to ask for the jury trial to be held in another venue, likely Salt Lake County. On Tuesday, Utah's Supreme Court issued a final decision confirming decisions made by the 3rd District Court that the jury selection in the case would be remote and that jurors could be pulled only from Summit County. Mrazik had said he was fine with the request to have jury selection in person and to include potential jurors from Salt Lake County, something attorneys on both sides agreed on, but the decision was ultimately up to the presiding judge in the district. Likely because these requests were denied, Richins attorneys are seeking to instead have the jury trial in Salt Lake County with jurors who may be less familiar with the case and people involved in it. On March 4, attorneys will present oral arguments around what evidence can be shown at trial. Richins is also scheduled for hearings on March 17 and 18 to discuss other motions before her trial begins in April. Mrazik encouraged the attorneys to work together on timing and said there has been no motion to delay the trial. If there was a request to delay the trial, he would be "disinclined" to grant it. He said "it is full speed ahead" toward trial, noting to the attorneys that pressure from the time is only going to increase as it gets closer. Richins was arrested in 2023 and later charged with murder in the 2022 death of her husband, Eric Richins, who was 39. During the year between his death and her arrest, Kouri Richins published a children's book about grief. She is accused of administering a fatal dose of fentanyl to her husband in March 2022 and has also been charged with giving him a lethal dose of drugs on Valentine's Day a few weeks earlier. The jury during Richins' upcoming trial will be asked to determine whether she is guilty of charges of aggravated murder and attempted murder, first-degree felonies; two counts of filing a fraudulent insurance claim, a second-degree felony; and one count of forgery, a third-degree felony.
