Unpredictable weather has affected which crops can be grown, how much farmers can harvest and how much it costs to grow them.
Saturday mornings at Haile Farmers Market, Eric Bjerregaard arranges peppers, eggplant and okra on a small table at his booth.
The produce comes from Boondox Tropicals, his farm southwest of Newberry, where he grows much of it in greenhouses. But this year, even those greenhouses have not been able to escape the heat.
Bjerregaard said temperatures have been worse than normal, causing some of his plants to stop producing. His sweet peppers, jalapeños and cayenne peppers stopped bearing fruit, while his habaneros continued to produce.
To manage the heat, he cut vents in the roofs of his greenhouses.
"It actually gets too hot in there, even for pineapples and tropical fruit," he said.
Bjerregaard is one of several local farmers dealing with a growing season marked by extreme and unpredictable weather.
Across three farms in north central Florida, farmers described a year of frost, drought, heat and heavy rain. The unpredictable weather has affected which crops can be grown, how much farmers can harvest and how much it costs to grow them.
At Siembra Farm in southeast Gainesville, co-owner Cody Galligan said the combination of heat and unusual rainfall has brought more insects and pests that can damage crops, forcing the farm to change when it plants certain crops.
The weather has also affected the output Siembra Farm gets from its crops, increasing the cost of production.
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