Around 1890, Augustuv Engel decided to move his farming family from Germany to the United States.  After a farm sale, he packed up his wife and five children and they started their journey. Upon arrival at the port, they found they were a day late and their passenger ship had sailed away. After finding a job and passage for his family on a freighter ship, their passage began. Due to poor living conditions, only his wife and two children survived the trip. They later learned that the passenger ship they originally had tickets for was lost at sea. One of the children who survived the trip was Kevin’s great-grandfather. Settling in south central Illinois, the Engel family began their farming legacy in the United States. Kevin’s grandfather, August Engel, farmed in Farina, Illinois where he and his wife Lidia had 16 children, the 5th child being Carol Engel (Kevin’s father).  Carol Engel (Bud) married Marie Furrow and moved to Virginia in 1949 to manage a farm for the son of the family doctor in Farina, Illinois. Following that job, Carol took a second farm management job in King William County. After working on the farm Kevin’s dad managed, he decided to form his own operation. In 1991, Kevin and his wife Denise started Engel Farms Inc. Today, the Engels farm ground in over 14 counties in Virginia, stretching from Chesapeake to Albemarle.