Farm

Storey Farms’ Homegrown Story

Jeremy Storey was a chef at Chicago’s elite three-Michelin-star restaurant Alinea before he traded in his apron to become a farmer, raising 3,000 hens at Storey Farms on Johns Island. 

Jeremy has a chicken coop at Kiawah River Farm that is home to 150 lively chickens, a wonderful addition the farms’ bustling environment. Here, Storey Farms raises free-range chickens and shares fresh brown eggs in Kiawah River Farm’s Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) program. The CSA services our community with seasonal produce and farm products harvested on our land. The delicious eggs are not only delivered to our neighbors, but also serve many popular Charleston restaurants. 

 The chickens are an integral part of the farm. When they aren’t laying eggs, they love to roam around the farm in packs, curiously following visitors or pecking around the land. The chickens provide organic pest control by eating worms and fire ants, which protects the goats and pigs that are susceptible to those tiny, yet harmful threats. The chicken droppings also rejuvenate the grass for the cows and goats to graze, balancing the ecosystem. 

Our neighbors love to visit the farm and play with the chickens, which have become an educational piece of Kiawah River Farm and an endless source of entertainment. They welcome visitors, peering up to observe the guests who stop by to interact with Kiawah River Farm’s animals.  

Storey Farms delivers its eggs to over 40 different Charleston restaurant kitchens, a network which Jeremy has built over the past six years. The Ordinary, FIG, Millers all Day, Butcher & Bee, Poogan’s Porch and Vicious Biscuit are all fans of his fresh brown eggs.  

“It helps me immensely to go into restaurants and watch people enjoy the eggs,” he said. “It’s rewarding to me to see people support our product. People here just really love feeling that connection to local farms, it’s a community supported structure.” 

“I don’t think there are many places where what I do would work as well as it does here,” Jeremy said. “The awareness of the quality of local ingredients is definitely elevated here.“ 

You can pick up some of Jeremy’s eggs at Storey Farms Market on Betsy Kerrison Parkway, across the street from Kiawah River. The outdoor shop  offers a wide variety of produce, grab-and-go meals and grocery items from Charleston makers. The emerging store is a wonderful option to those who love to shop local. Although it welcomes many visitors today, the pandemic paused a lot of Jeremy’s plans for his market when it was just beginning.  

“When the pandemic first started, I felt doomed, I thought we were probably going to go out of business,” he said. “Before we opened the market, 90% of what we sold was to restaurants, and since they were suffering, we had to quickly adapt.”  

 Jeremy realized an opportunity to share extra eggs and meat to neighborhoods around the Holy City. He drove his refrigerated van to local neighborhoods and sold linen bags full of eggs and meat. Thousands of visitors were drawn by word-of-mouth, helping him sell to lines that stretched over 200 feet long. The van was a big support to his business before he was able to sustain his sales through restaurants again.  

“I remember one day we sold over $7,000 worth of product in one day by going to a few neighborhoods,” Jeremy said. “We’ve actually done better than ever through the pandemic.”  

Jeremy feels fortunate and grateful for the support of the community and is thankful to have built partnerships with other local farms that raise quality meat and produce. He’s continuing to build on his dreams for Storey Farms and has plans to cultivate a large project at Kiawah River Farms. 

Stop by Kiawah River Farm to learn more about Jeremy’s chickens and pick up some of their delicious fresh brown eggs!