Why Are People Mad About This Ballerina Farm Cutting Board?

This $259 scalloped cutting board has been provoking a lot of opinions online.

Lately, Hannah Neeleman — a.k.a. Ballerina Farm — has been hard at work launching new products, like chocolate-coconut-almond protein powder and an electrolyte powder designed to help you “hydrate like a farmer.” But one product in particular seems to be causing a stir: a scalloped maple cutting board, which is available on Ballerina Farm’s website for $259.

On TikTok, influencers with paid partnerships claim this is the “cutting board of all cutting boards” that would “make the perfect family heirloom.” But others are calling b.s. For one thing, $259 is a lot for a cutting board. But apparently, the main issue is with the board’s construction. The TikTok user Rustic Hippies, who calls herself “the self-appointed chopping board lady,” pointed out that the Ballerina Farm board is made with the face grain of the wood, which is the weakest part, meaning it will bow and warp. “And that is exactly what I’ve seen on my feed,” she said. “People holding up this board and it’s already warped and bowed because it sat in their sink and it got wet and it dried and now it looks awful.” Another video proclaiming that “women are DONE with Ballerina Farm!!” accused Neeleman of marketing the board as a “cutting board” when it’s really a “charcuterie board.” Meanwhile, someone else pointed out that the Pioneer Woman sells a similar-looking scalloped wood board at Walmart for $14.88.

For what it’s worth, the Ballerina Farm cutting board got a five-star rating on the Shop app, where customers are calling it “beautiful” and “very well made.” But the backlash appears to have hit a nerve with Neeleman, who posted a rare response to her critics. In an eight-minute-long video, Neeleman acknowledged that the cutting board is expensive. She explained that’s because the boards are made by hand in Utah by a husband and wife who are now good friends of hers. Plus, she said, cutting boards are heavy, so it costs a lot to ship them. While she didn’t get into the specifics of wood grain, she said that there are “a lot of decisions we make in the process that really ensure quality in our products.” Acknowledging that some of her other products — like a $144 box of croissants — also cost a lot, Neeleman added, “It wouldn’t be exciting or fun or fulfilling to me to cut corners on things and sell them at a lower price.”

Neeleman also took the opportunity to discuss some of the growing pains that come when your follower count shoots up to 10.4 million. Noting that sometimes “new eyes come in” that “make these assumptions,” she addressed the apparently common criticism that she and her husband, Daniel — whose father is the founder of JetBlue — are “not really homesteaders” and “this is all a fake façade.” While admitting that they are “newbies in agriculture” who have made some mistakes, Neeleman said that Daniel’s father “hasn’t ever supported us financially.” She added, “We started really at ground zero.”

So it sounds like we all learned something today. Neeleman learned that not everyone wants to pay $259 for a pretty cutting board, and I learned that if you want a quality cutting board that will actually last for years, you should go with end grain.

Click here to preview your posts with PRO themes ››