Our Story

In 1932, our family settled in Bradner ~  a small, rural community in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada. Grandpa and Grandma Kilian (Vincent and Helen) started our farm by growing hay, raspberries and pasture to feed the dairy cows that produced milk for Dairyland. Later, our Dad and Mom, Jim and Faye  Kilian, raised and sold Limousine Beef cattle (also enabling us to enjoy 4H through our childhood). Now, in our latest farming adventure, "The Kilian kids" are growing Garlic!

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Bradner Hills Farm (Garlic) began as a passing 2015 dinner conversation on

"how neat it would be to...".​

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By 2016, we had reconditioned our 2 old and faithful

tractors, bought a 2-tine plough, and greased our new

(old) rototiller. After attending a "How to grow (spray

and pesticide free) Garlic" workshop, we sent our soil

to the lab for analysis. We verified the soil pH and

fertility then added some organic chicken compost.

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In 2017 we planted 2800 plants. We learned (the hard way) about weed management: pulling January weeds in sub-zero temperatures in our fishing waders with frozen fingers!

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In 2018, our crop grew to 15,000. Our organic weed management included laying some 60 lb recycled kraft paper sprinkled with some hardwood chips (for weight) and organic chopped silage. Those hearty little Red Russians poked through!

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By June 2019, we had 10,000 garlic scapes for sale. As this product is still fairly unknown in Canada (it's well known in Asian Cuisine), we offered our scapes to our faithful retailers ~ pro-bono ~ to help consumers familiarize with this amazing, unsung garlic hero!

Check out these garlic scape recipes! 

With the Garlic Scapes removed, 10,000 large bulbs (averaging 4-7 oz each) were ready for sale in August 2019,  For the 2020 and 2021 crops, 18,000 seeds were planted.

Annually, in early July, we sell custom-ordered "green" (aka: "fresh") Red Russian Russian bulbs. After that, we harvest and hang our bulbs for 3 weeks ~ to ensure they are dry and well-cured. Our intention is to offer properly-processed bulbs to enable consumers to have the best chance at storing their bulbs (in a cool, dry, well-ventilated area with low humidity) into the winter months.

​​In 2020, we trialed our newest, ready-to-use frozen "BHF Garlic Gold Bars" and unpeeled cloves. They sold out by October!

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In 2021, the dry-weather and an unfamiliar "heat-dome" covered BC. Although awful for wildfires and multi-community evacuations, it proved positive for drying the healthy, robust 2021 Red Russian Garlic harvest of 18,000 bulbs!

Feeling more secure in our garlic wisdom, we hosted 3

days of "Garlic U-Pick Events". Beyond harvesting garlic,

these events built community spirit and blossomed new

relationships. To-be garlic gardeners enjoyed live chat

times learning from our successes, mistakes & evolving

knowledge base.​

In 2022, after the excessive heat-dome & fires last summer, BC experienced its first "atmospheric river". Abbotsford was under-water; Sumas Prairie reverted to its previous "Sumas Lake" in this 14 day unprecedented event. Sadly, beyond excessive losses of homes, land, roads, farm-businesses and animals, the growth of all field crops was delayed by 30-90 days.... impacting sales, schedules, harvests and planting of al vegetables.

BHF survived the flood but did not escape the delay in harvest and the squeeze it put on next year's planting schedule (only one month between picking and re-planting poses challenges for drying bulbs, cracking into cloves and re-fortifying the soil before the rains of the Fall resume in October). 

 

The 2nd Annual BHF U-Pick occurred on July 29-31, 2022.

Attendance tripled! Bradner farming neighbors joined with

their produce. This was an additional attraction and 

1-stop-shop for Sunday drivers seeking local, fresh produce

from all over the lower mainland (some from as far away as

Alberta!). During the U-Pick event, we shared our pickled

Garlic Scapes; inspiring many to pickle their own after they

collected theirs at the 2023 U-Pick Garlic Scape-by-Donation

Event.​

Once again, BHF Sold Out all 21,000 bulbs by mid Sept, disappointing some would-be seed planters when they called for seed in October, 2022.​

In 2023, we introduced a pre-order form on our website, and the feedback from our community was really positive! Customers found it convenient, and helped us plan better than in previous years.​​

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In 2024, we sold out before the harvest even began! Thanks to our pre-order forms, we were able to simplify the process and manage orders from folks throughout the Lower Mainland. Seeds and Seconds disappeared by Sept. 2024. The continued demand spurred us into a new initiative: "Farmers Helping Farmers"... which it did! We purchased garlic from a hard-working, charity-in-need and offered their product to our customer base (after a road-trip to Chilliwack to confirm the quality & growing methods, weeding and harvesting processes and over-all values aligned with our's). They did. We did. The rest? History! Win-win. 400 extra pounds of high-quality garlic was moved from farm to tables! The NGO won. The consumer won.​​​​​​​​​​

The lower-mainland BC weather hit another rain-event. It lasted Sept-Oct, 2024. This delayed planting by 6 weeks! If it wasn't for brother-Bob and his creative jimmy-rigging the front-forks on his skid-steer to hold the dibbler (usually it's mounted on a 3-point hitch behind our old tractor), we would not have got the seeds in the ground! Thank the Lord for our family!​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

 

 

 

 

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​​For 2025, the pre-order form opened in April and closed in June (anticipated sell-out). This process has significantly improved our ability to manage demand for garlic in our community, offering first purchase opportunity to our loyal, returning customers. Thank you for being a part of our journey!

We are thinking of expanding to better meet demand... an uncertain-anxiety-producing but exciting prospect for 2026. Stay tuned!

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By 2026, our dedicated customer-base blossomed. Relationships ~ even friendships ~ had sparked. Everyone looks forward to the email announcing the mid-June "Garlic Scape U-Pick-by-Donation" event. It signals the launch of the season. Five quick weeks pass and it's harvest time. Pre-orders were collected from over 140 people for the 12,000 bulbs planted. It's amazing how a decade of learning, growing, processing and sales of garlic has spun into something so much bigger (and so meaningful).

As much as folks come to pick-up their garlic and "meet at the barn", they also come to share their stories of struggle and success and, unexpectedly, the emotional toll it all has alongside the new-world realities: Climate change, BC wild-fires, loss of homes and animals and livelihoods in the Okanagan, Boston Bar, Summerland, Peachland, Fintry... the list keeps growing. Water resources (Kal Lake, Okanagan Lake) are depleting. Droughts, floods, war (Israel-US-Iran), Trump's tariffs, economic and political unrest. These are common themes as the paper bag rattles filling with garlic then setting it "like an egg" on the scale. These short exchanges help share the loads ~ both ways ~ together.​​​​​

 

Just as the last of the garlic was sold and the under-cutter unhooked, our old faithful Massey Ferguson 255 tractor "blew up" (oil everywhere). A quick reality-check spawned; Where we are at? Where we want to go as a farming family (it takes alot of garlic to pay for a $50k new tractor)? How do we deal with the labor costs associated with manual weeding 3x/year? No grants are available. Government support is heading to the berries, wines and chickens (fires and Avian flu)...

Reliable and supportive Tom from Tom's Equipment Repair stopped by. Fortunately, the "catastrophic engine breech" that we believed we had turned into a "broken hose". A new hose and more oil should limp us through another season.

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Sadly, this year, the bulbs were smaller (about 7-8 bulbs per pound instead of 4-5 like years prior). Garlic rust was common. We had more "duds" (aka: "seconds") to process. That said, they sure make nice Frozen Garlic Pods (10-2 oz. frozen cups per $40 box, ready-to-use). By mid-August, we had produced 60 boxes - ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and hostess-gifting.... lemons to lemonade.

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This has been the 2026 reality (and disappointment) for many garlic growers. The early spring rains caused alot of fungus-rust. The warmer winter prevented the bulbs from creating 6-7 cloves, leaving too many with 1-2 cloves (duds). Many growers lost everything. We managed to keep 12,500 seeds for the 2026 plant. We had intended to plant 15,000 and to sell seed to others. That didn't happen. 

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We plan to purchase a mechanical mulch layer to use with organic-certified Weedguard Plus heavy paper mulch in November. We pray this process will suppress some of the too-many weeds we've been managing... and make the back-work a bit less for 2026-2027.