With a drive through their budding cannabis farm, this husband-wife duo has their work cut out for them in 2023. For Brittany and Erik Carbone, this has become their life’s work.

"It's four acres. We don't necessarily plant on the entire thing, but it allows us for some space to be able to rotate our crop,” Brittany said.

Once a fitness instructor and construction worker respectively, the duo left their jobs and their Long Island home to pursue an industry with multi-billion dollar growth expected over the next few years.

"It became a really amazing opportunity not to just to grow and really fall in love with that process even more, but to really be able to open up our farm to the community, especially our downstate community,” Brittany said.

But along with the excitement on the way for farmers throughout the region, comes a bit of uncertainty.

Hundreds of growers planted their first crop once approvals were granted in 2022, but ever-changing regulations on things like packaging, and uncertainty with the opening of retail stores, made the process a challenge.

"Without retail and without regulations, the processors were pretty slow to move on the material to purchase because they weren't sure when they were going to make that cash flow back on the other end,” Brittany said. “So everybody kind of was definitely a bit nervous going into this harvest season, being like, well, you know, now what?”

This barn at Tricolla Farms will soon be filled floor to ceiling with adult-use cannabis, branded under the couple’s company “TONIC.”

It’s one of New York’s 200 farms, licensed to cultivate.

With bags and bags of product ready to hit the shelves, they couldn’t be more excited for retail stores to open. 

"It's huge because  growing and harvesting without really knowing what that kind of outlet is going to be is definitely very stressful and difficult for especially this particular group of cultivators all coming from the hemp program,” Brittany said.

But despite the challenges and years of hard work, this couple couldn’t be happier to have each other through the process.

"Nobody can understand unless you're really going through it,” Brittany said. “So at least we're going through it together. And no matter how stressful that is, at least we have each other to lean on at the end of the day."