Our Story

Everyday I share a glimpse into our rural farm and family life here in the mountains of northern Utah. I wear many hats–mom, wife, cook, business owner, content creator, lover of God and all things butter. For long time followers and those just joining the journey, I wanted to take the opportunity to tell you our story in my own words. My time before marriage, before kids, before I even dreamt of creating Ballerina Farm.

I was born and raised in Utah to loving parents. The eighth of nine children, our household was always bustling. My parents worked together running a small flower shop. My Dad was the florist and the creative mind; while my mom ran the books and sales. My Dad would give the flowers away if he could, so it was up to my mom to make sure we turned a profit.

Cash was tight, entrepreneurial spirit was thick, and we worked hard to make ends meet. Looking back now, I realize I was raised in a small business training incubator. A front line view of how business works. With the flower shop being in retail I learned all about the seasonalities of cash flow, the importance of a good customer experience, and the value of great employees.

Dad was constantly changing up our product offering to boost sales and attract new customers. Our busiest days were Saturdays and holidays. That was life as usual growing up in a flower shop. Today, all nine of us kids have our own businesses. I grew up thinking that’s what happens when you become an adult, you start a family and start a business.

At different parts of my life, I’ve had different dreams–dance; marriage; motherhood; dreaming of building a business.

Dance was my first love. I wanted to be the best. My brothers still joke that all the profits from the flower shop were funneled into paying for my pointe shoes and ballet lessons. This is probably true.

I was admitted to The Juilliard School at age 17 and moved to New York City. It was a joyous yet stressful moment for my parents. They struggled with the moral and financial implications of sending their daughter to live so far from home in a giant metropolis. They prayed God would watch over me, and He did.

I went from dancing in the back of the flower shop to rubbing shoulders with some of the best dancers in the world. I was in heaven some days, and some days struggling to adapt to this new life. To take some of the financial load off of my parents I began competing in beauty pageants to help pay for school related expenses.

The summer before my senior year at Juilliard I met Daniel and fell in love. They say, “once you know, you know,” and I was sure I’d met the love of my life. We dated only a couple of months before getting married. It was the best decision I ever made.

I had left school for summer break single and dance focused, when I came back to school in the fall I was married and thinking about a different future. My family, Daniel and I sacrificed a lot in those first years of marriage, dedicating ourselves to one another. We were all in. When we first met, Daniel was playing collegiate lacrosse at BYU. He decided to end his athletic career early and move to New York to support me as I finished my final year at Juilliard. We lived as newlyweds in uptown Manhattan.

While dating we had talked about when to start a family. There was no hesitation from either of us. We came from big families, (we are both one of nine) and wanted a big family. So we left it in God’s hands. I thought he would want me to finish school before sending me our firstborn Henry. We plan, God laughs.

Henry was born in Brooklyn, NY in May of 2012. He was one week old when I carried him in my arms across the stage in cap and gown to accept my diploma. I would go down in school history as the first undergraduate ballerina to be a mother. He wasn’t an accident. We were ready. Motherhood was my new dream. God was guiding me, as He always had.

As a young family we moved to São Paulo for work. Daniel speaks fluent Portuguese and it was an adventure we couldn’t pass up.

I found a remarkable dance company near our home in Brazil and began dancing again. It was at this time in that beautiful country we began to discover our love of agriculture.

On the weekends, Daniel’s co-workers would all head to the beach. We would join them for a time, until we discovered farm hotels. These were small bed and breakfast weekend getaway places on farms and ranches. A place where you could eat farm fresh cheeses and meats, learn about animals, watch chores being done, etc. We were hooked.

It wasn’t long before we started smuggling home farm animals in the trunk of our little car back to our home in the suburbs of São Paulo. Before long we had accumulated a small farm's worth of critters and we worried the HOA would come knocking. We had been in Brazil for four years. We were ready to head home to the States.

We learned wonderful things in those years, I even learned to speak Portuguese and to this day love cooking Brazilian food.

We moved back to Utah and began hunting for a small farm to buy. A few months later we found it and shortly thereafter bought our first pigs and I started the Instagram account.

“What should we call it?” I asked my older brother, also a small business owner. “Ballerina Farm, of course”, he said casually. “I don’t know any ballerinas that are farming, kind of unique,” he said.

So that’s what we did. We called it Ballerina Farm and we started chasing after our new list of dreams. The channel is an expression of my real life. It is beautiful, rewarding and I get to do it with my family.

We have many dreams still to accomplish and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

With Love,
Hannah