An Ottawa farmer is scrambling to pack up hundreds of pounds of potatoes to send to Iqaluit after a fire wiped out one of the city's main stores.

The goal is get the spuds packaged and ready to go from Manotick all the way to Iqaluit.

It's time consuming sorting through every potato in all of the bins but it's clear Mike Milsom takes pride in his produce.

“That's a beautiful russet potato right there,” he says as he sorts through his bins, “There’s no seconds going up North for sure.”

Milsom farms NCC land on River Road, growing organic produce that he delivers to restaurants and local residents in the Ottawa area, offering shares through Mike’s Garden Harvest. His next delivery, though, is a doozy.

Last week in Iqaluit, the city's largest store went up in flames. The warehouse connected to the Northmart store is where all the food from cargo ships is stored.

“They've had a setback,” Milsom says.

Enter Mike Milsom and his potatoes. He has been delivering fresh produce weekly to Iqaluit as part of his business, harvesting and them immediately washing, packing and delivering as fresh of produce as he can. Just last week, he dug up the last of his produce, hundreds of pounds of Russet potatoes.

“To get produce like that, so fresh, so close from when it was harvested,” says Michael Lockley who is the chef at the Qayuqtuvik Society's food centre in Iqaluit. “He sends it every week.”

This delivery though will be a donation.

“My own emotional response to the events that happened with the fire,” says Milsom, “is that this is where the potatoes need to go.”

“We are at the tail end of our season,” he says, “This is all we have left or I would be shipping a lot more.”

Each of the bins in his garage holds about 50 pounds of potatoes. The plan is to ship all of the bins, about 2000 pounds worth of potatoes, up north.

One of Milsom's local customers has set up a Go Fund Me page to help make this happen.

“The idea was to help reimburse Mike for the cost of the food he put in the ground,” says David Davison, “not his sweat equity because he's just that kind of guy; to help with the cost and hopefully help with the air freight.”

Milsom is hoping to ship the spuds out in the next 48 hours on First Air but that airline says it's at maximum capacity at the moment.

“Once we have the capacity available,” Dan Valin with First Air said in an email statement, “we'll be more than happy to look at ways to continue to support the community of Iqaluit with those who want to help."

Milsom isn't letting that deter him.

“We’ll see how it goes,” he says, matter-of-factly.

He's confident his potatoes will soon find themselves on a plate in Iqaluit one way or another.