Lindsey Ewald’s roots run deep in the Hood River Valley, so it figures that she — for now, at least — would find her way home after rambles that took her briefly to the farthest corner of the Pacific Ocean.
Now in her first year behind the bar of Naked Winery’s Hood River tasting room, Lindsey is glad to be juggling wine-pouring duties with time helping her fourth-generation fruit-growing family and running a business making party cakes of all sizes.
After Ewald earned her college degree in communications from Arizona State — where she was a member of the waterski team — she and a friend took a break to teach English in the Kingdom of Tonga in the southern Pacific Ocean.
Distance makes the heart grow lonely.
“It was good for the time that I was there, but I wanted to get back,” she says.
Her time away from the valley included a brief stint at Oregon State University, where she met James Nygren, a pitcher with the Beavers’ stellar baseball squad.
Now, while Lindsey plucks pears, pours pinot noir and bakes cup and wedding cakes, Nygren toils with the pitching corps for the New Orleans Zephyrs triple-A ball club.
For the last three years, she has operated Frosted, making cupcakes and larger treats for weddings, birthday parties and baby showers.
She says it’s difficult with her boyfriend living so far away, but plans a trip south this summer to watch the Zephyrs play. She brings a much different appreciation to the game than she once did.
“I was never much of a baseball fan,” she says.
“But now I know more about pitching than I ever thought I would.”
The Naked Truth 