But six hours later, he received a call from the building owner that the eggs had never been collected - the restaurant had suddenly closed because a staff member was positive for Covid-19, and no one canceled the command.
After half a day under the scorching sun, the eggs could no longer be eaten. Storey went back to get them and took the loss.
"Half of the restaurants we go to now, we find out by delivering them that they are closed," he said. "Often I will go to restaurants and I will just have to read the sign on the front door, whether they are open or not."
He is now sitting on a surplus of around 24,000 eggs, he estimates. And he doesn't know when or if things will stabilize.
Unpredictability is a major problem for Storey Farms in Johns Island, South Carolina. If Storey can't predict what the demand for eggs will look like tomorrow, let alone months from now, he runs the risk of overproducing - which would leave him with an expensive surplus - or underproducing, which would prevent him from having enough eggs on hand to meet demand.
Storey is not alone. Its challenges are representative of the difficulties faced by farmers who sell to independent restaurants when trying to predict demand in these uncertain times.
Back in March, when restaurants firstclosed and home orders took effect, some of these farmers were left without customers. Now, as restaurants have started resuming restaurant service, a new wave of coronavirus cases has halted plans to reopen and put farmers back in limbo - and made planning ahead even more difficult.
Planning is essential for farmers because they have to anticipate customer demand for months, and sometimes years, before delivering in order to have enough time to grow or raise animals.
It's almost impossible when restaurants are struggling to stay in business: From March to May, restaurant and drinking establishment sales were $ 94 billion below expected levels, according to a survey by the National Restaurant Association. Falling sales and unpredictable demand have prompted many farmers to support the Restaurants Act, which would spend $ 120 billion on independent bars and restaurants until the end of the year.
Recently, a number of states have suspended or reversed plans to reopen restaurant dining rooms as the coronavirus pandemic tears the country apart, making matters worse for these farmers.
'No end in sight'
New Jersey has called not to re-open dining at the end of June, just days before the scheduled reopening. New York City, which was on the verge of reopening restaurant dining rooms, suspended the decision indefinitely earlier this month. Arizona restaurants had to cut their interior capacity to 50% last week. And on Monday, California asked all restaurants to close their dining rooms again. As cases continue to increase, other states and cities may follow suit or tighten their restrictions.
The uncertainty "is really what's causing the problem," said Gary Wertish, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union, one of the groups supporting the restaurant law. "There is no end in sight," he said. This makes it "really difficult to plan for the future".
If the uncertainty continues for another year or two, he said, some farms and restaurants will close.
Restaurants don't close only because employees have fallen ill with coronavirus.
Kate McClendon, an organic farmer based in Peoria, Arizona, said that each of the 90 restaurants served by her farm faces her own situation. "We have closed some restaurants proactively because they are trying to get all of their employees tested," said McClendon. "We had a few who tried to open for takeout only and then decided it was not durable and close." Others have struggled to rehire their staff, she said.
McClendon runs McClendon's Select with her husband, Sean. They grow dozens of different types of fruits and vegetables, including romanesco cauliflower and romaine lettuce. The farm has been in the family for decades - but McClendon is worried about its future.
Like Storey, McClendon also executed orders only to find that the restaurants were closed upon delivery. She started monitoring social media to find out if the restaurants are still open.
Typically, Sean will develop a planting plan based on the patterns they have observed throughout the year. Now they guess. "We have nothing to continue," she said. "We have no idea how to predict what it will look like."
It's a new world for farmers who have come to rely on certain restaurants to make a profit.
"We have a lot of stability when [restaurants are] open and do their regular business, "said Matt Weik, owner of Y-ker Acres, a hog farm in northern Minnesota, and sells top-quality meats to restaurants. Weik and his family grew produce, but moved on to meat about six years ago because of the distinctions received by his inherited pasture-raised pork. He has had long-standing relationships with independent restaurants that display his products on their menus. Before the pandemic, he had come to learn exactly what they needed.
"I know some restaurants that will eat 1000 meals a day [in] July, August and September, "he said." And I know, after several years, that they're going to need so much ground pork and pork chops every two weeks. "
Many restaurants that Weik sells have reopened. But their needs are now unknown: Recently, Weik was filling an order for $ 1,000 smoked pork chops for a restaurant when he learned that it was closing again, probably until August, because an employee was positive for Covid-19.
The restaurant still plans to pay for the order, but not before it reopens. Weik described the reverse as "another straw on the back of the camel."
Because of the upheaval, some farmers who depend on independent restaurants are now trying a different business model.
Take Steve Matthiasson, who, along with his wife, owns the Matthiasson Winery in Napa Valley, California. This year heended up selling much of the wine he had designated for restaurants directly to consumers at a lower price.
The change "allowed us to use our wine and get our money out of it, but we will not benefit from it," said Matthiasson. "We will lose money this year. We will operate at a loss. Hopefully it will be a reasonable loss that we can overcome."
If farmers stop selling to restaurants, it's also bad news for restaurants.
"A significant portion of our harvest ... is used for restaurant sales," said Pete Skold, co-owner of Waxwing Farm in Webster, Minnesota, with his wife. But if the restaurants are closed this winter, he will have to sell these crops to consumers. And once this commitment is made, he will not be able to return to the restaurant sale because there will not be enough supply for both.
This means that some restaurants going through this dark period will not have a stable source of supply at the other end.
"If the restaurants close and the farms pivot to other avenues, when the restaurants reopen," said Skold, "it's hard to get back on this ship."