We like the Weather but did the little red fruits?

Since the last posting (when there was plenty of fruit going on) the strawberries have pretty much stopped growing. We had been watering regularly and picking every 2-3 days but then they just stopped! It was all looking so good! As we're new to the growing lark we were not expecting that a bit of harmless sunshine would interfere with the progress of our much cared for fruits--little did we know.
It has been an eye opener, definitely. It was painful to witness our strawbs, which started off so well, take a plunge into non-growth. The mid season 'hapil' variety decided not to produce at all, apart from a few really early ones, and after that just tiny specks of non-strawberries, microscopic red blobs, deformed and sad looking. The late 'symphony' variety, which had also come on really early, is now producing about 1kg of fruit per week- from 500 plants!
So we're now just spending the picking time, weeding and exposing some soil for the runners to take root for next year's mystery yield. It's not hugely disappointing as we have harvested quite a few kilos of the fruit but I s'pose it's just a little heartbreaking to see the plants we looked after suffering from the heat and dry, I really didn't think it would go that way. Anyway, it's just one more example of what a difficult job farmers and growers have to make their crops work. I now have and even newer-found respect for the grower and the uncertainty of yield. No matter how much financial investment and love you give the plants you're not guaranteed a thing at the end of the day. This is why we need to support our growers all the more! Big thanks to Chris and Alan Hewitt for their help and support.