Magic Mix is a crunchy seasoning made from spices, seeds and other dried ingredients. The inspiration came from flavors in Ayurveda and Chinese medicine.
Petra Knapp, owner of Native Provisions, holds freshly picked figs at her first workshop.
Emma Renly photos
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Magic Mix is a crunchy seasoning made from spices, seeds and other dried ingredients. The inspiration came from flavors in Ayurveda and Chinese medicine.
HOOD RIVER — A grazing table from Native Provisions is an eye-catching, edible arrangement with a thoughtfully curated design of food sourced from local producers. Depending on the season, there’s cherries, apples and pears from long-standing Gorge orchards, cave-aged cheese from Troutlake’s Cascadia Creamery or cured meats and fish freshly caught from the Columbia.
“It’s showcasing everything local and fresh right now,” said owner Petra Knapp, who bought the business from Julie Estcourt in 2021. Knapp was already crafting eloquent charcuterie boards for friends on every occasion, so the change of hands was a natural fit, and the grazing tables were soon a creative outlet during her day job as an engineer.
Knapp’s signature colorful designs are now recognizable throughout the Gorge, and the business has expanded into catering and private chef work for dinner parties, celebrations and events.
Origins
Knapp is from Hood River — she grew up in a household where soil health and gardening were common topics around the table. As a kid, she remembers her mom announcing, “We’re gonna take the poop out of the chicken coop and mix it into our compost — and that’s going to make our crops produce better.”
She noted that their mom emphasized the importance of knowing how food is grown and then sharing it. Their family would visit the Hood River Farmer Market weekly, which has grown over the past twenty years from primarily orchard fruit and mini donuts to bundles of produce, including fresh heirloom vegetables.
Knapp brings her family’s value system to Native Provisions, where sourcing locally remains important. Many of the farmers are close friends or people she grew up with. “It’s truly a community thing to bring together local food,” she said.
Native Provisions draws inspiration from the Gorge’s landscape. Knapp explained that the Gorge’s microclimates support a diverse range of food, from wine grapes that need a specific wind for flavor to foraging for morels in forests burned by wildfires.
“We’re living in this area where the entire physical landscape is geographically shaped by glaciers melting and lava tubes collapsing,” Knapp said. “It created this incredibly fertile area.”
The Gorge also offers fun — once Knapp passed her driver’s license, hiking, waterfall jumping and sunset trips with friends became regular after-school activities. Her interest in the outdoors quickly grew into mountain biking, wingfoiling and whitewater kayaking, especially when she moved back to the Gorge in 2020.
“There’s such beautiful, magical nature around us, and it’s all so easy to get to,” she noted. The seasonal, outdoor lifestyle matched her interest in seasonal food.
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