Get your mead on; poison resistance is important. Also, swap in an extra red-fork food for more health; the rain kills your stamina regen, but everything else kills you.

Go sneaking around in the swamp until you find a turnip seed flower, then go home and farm for a week or two; the cauldron upgrade and the better foods are well worth the time investment getting your equipment set up well.

The difficulty spike is intentional; much like the spike between meadows and black forest when you're not prepared... it's just that the preparation in this case isn't only about "gearing up".