The Boden family has 48 acres and plan.
On their property just outside of Hay River, Anne Boden and her husband Peter want to start the largest commercial produce farm in the Northwest Territories.
This year the couple, both first-time farmers, planted 4,000 pounds of potato seeds on a parcel of land they bought from Peter's parents.
If all goes well, Boden Farms will be harvesting their locally-grown spuds this September.
"We'll see what happens," said Boden on June 25. "It's kind of an experiment."
Boden home schools the couple's four children and her husband works for a contracting company.
Starting up a produce farm is a side project right now, albeit an exceptionally ambitious one.
"We're aiming to be a large, commercial enterprise," said Boden. "We're aiming upwards of 100,000, 150,000 pounds of potatoes to grow and sell."
Already avid gardeners, the Bodens have carrots, peas, beets and cucumbers growing in plots surrounding their home. It was through backyard gardening that they learned how to grow potatoes.
Currently, the family has Norland, white and Yukon gold seeds in the ground, and is hoping to sell their yields at Super A and other grocery stores in the territory.
The Bodens are helping bust the myth that the North is not conducive to an agriculture industry.
"The North has always concentrated on oil and gas, diamond mines, gold mines, tourism, and not really looked at the potential of agricultural development, because we see our climate as colder and our growing season as shorter," said Boden.
But she maintains that with enough land and funding, farming in the North is possible.
The problem is that in the Northwest Territories, financial support is lacking.
"There's no subsidies for agriculture in the North like there is in the south," said Boden.
Farming is an expensive undertaking. Boden said single piece of used equipment can cost more than $100,000.
The GNWT, however, is beginning to see the value in supporting Northern farmers.
This year, the territorial and federal governments banded together on the Canadian Agriculture Partnership, a $5.6-million investment in NWT agriculture, spread over five years.
"This kind of development is a prime example of what the Canadian Agriculture Partnership hopes to encourage in all the regions," Drew Williams, a spokesperson for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, said of Boden Farms in an email.
The GNWT earmarked another $1.3 million for the implementation of a territorial agriculture strategy.
These investments are a good start, said Boden, but more will be needed if the government hopes to grow NWT's nascent farming industry into a thriving sector of the territory's economy.
According to the GNWT, there are around 40 commercial food growers and agriculture business operating in the NWT.
"The potential is here," said Boden.
"It just takes people that want to do it and a government that supports it by providing the subsidies that are needed and helping to open land."