The ongoing drought, combined with high temperatures, has led Slow Food Hunter Valley to abandon the January markets and restart the event in February.

The first earth market will be held on Thursday, February 6.

The earth market's time will also change this year. The market had been held between 12.30pm and 5pm, but now it will return to an earlier time slot.

The market will now start at 8.30am and finish at 12.30pm.

It will still be held on the first and third Thursday of the month.

Slow Food Earth Market chairwoman Amorelle Dempster said farmers were facing challenging conditions.

"The heat is making it very hard to grow food and a lot of farmers are running out of water," she said.

"We are hoping for some good rain to turn things around. It's going to be quite difficult for farmers if we don't get rain soon."