Kelly Athena

Kelly has been an avid amateur naturalist since she was 8 years old, when her father gifted her an ethnobotany book. She began identifying—and eventually tasting—every edible plant in her yard and surrounding areas. A Valley resident since 1986, Kelly feels at home in the Sonoran Desert. She became a Maricopa County Master Gardener and then turned to full-time foraging for chefs and teaching others to forage with Cactus Kelly Urban Foraging Institute.

Kelly credits her foraging expertise to Wendy Hodgson’s book Food Plants of the Desert; botanist and foraging expert Mark Lewis; and contributors to the Southwest Foraging Facebook page. She offers workshops at both the Desert Botanical Garden and her Ahwatukee home at the base of South Mountain Park. When not making flour from mesquite pods or prickly pear cactus fruit seeds, she explores nearby trails.