STARworks Garden is sponsoring a wild edibles and mushroom foraging workshop. The event will be held at Tom Gray's Pottery on Saturday, June 18, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Join Asheville's epicure of the obscure, Alan Muskat, >on a quest for the edible and incredible wild mushroom. Sample "exotic" local wild fruit, ants and other >extreme cuisine >as time permits.

Learn how to safely find, identify, appreciate - maybe even >eat >- these elusive delights, all with The Mushroom Man's unique blend of poetry, stories, wit and wisdom.

Alan Muskat really knows how to pick 'em. Since 1995, he's sold hundreds of pounds of wild mushrooms a year to restaurants and hotels, including the Biltmore Estate and the Grove Park Inn.

Author of >"Wild Mushrooms: A Taste of Enchantment," this stand-up >comedian >has popped up in >The New Yorker >and in >Country Living, on PBS and on >Bizarre Foods >with Andrew Zimmern, even preached on >Voice of America, ardently urging the masses to sample rather than trample the toadstools. His >"No Taste Like Home" forage-and-eat retreat series is attracting national attention as the first of its kind in the country.

Author of "The Haggadah Vita," Muskat has also been leading Passover seder banquets for more than 20 years.

In 2007 he co-founded >The REAL Center, a school for relationship skills and natural living. The center will be orchestrating wild foods and reconciliation trips to Cuba, where Alan's family is from, starting next year. Meanwhile, a Hollywood production company is developing a series based around Muskat's life and work.

The workshop is $45 per person and includes a 40-page introductory e-book. Registration deadline is June 15. Tom Gray's Pottery is located at 1480 Fork Creek Mill Road, in Seagrove.

For more information or to register e-mail Anne Partna at anne@starworksnc.org or call (910) 428-9001.