Looking for something to eat close to home? Here are four recipes for backyard edibles.

With Anne Arundel County residents staying home and spending more time in their backyards and local woods, it’s never been a better time to try a hand at foraging. There are numerous edible foods growing all around that the untrained eye wouldn’t even think, at first glance, to add to a salad or grill for a burger’s side dish.

From dandelions to chickweed, there are endless ways to utilize the greenery shooting up outside.

For those digging up wild onions, try this fritatta. You’ll need:

a handful of cherry tomatoes, sliced, or one larger tomato sliced up

1/2 cup wild onions, chopped

1 cup spinach

1 teaspoon olive oil

6 large eggs (or 7-8 smaller eggs)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Thoroughly wash wild onions and cut off roots.

3. Cook onions, spinach and tomatoes in oil in a cast iron skillet (you’ll need a cast iron skillet because it’s headed to the oven) for about five minutes on medium heat.

4. Beat eggs with salt and pepper, add to veggies in the skillet.

5. Quickly place skillet in oven and cook for 10-12 minutes. Be careful not to overcook; it still tastes good, but the texture is a bit rubbery.

Dandelions are some of the most ubiquitous wild options out there, and the greens are both packed with a distinct bitter, peppery flavor and nutrition. Pairing it with something sweet and something savory can be a happy match, like bacon, maple syrup and sweet potatoes. You’ll need:

2 medium sweet potatoes

three strips of bacon (turkey or vegan is fine), diced

a bunch of dandelion greens, chopped

2 tablespoons of maple syrup

salt and pepper

1. Wash dandelion greens.

2. Cut sweet potatoes into rounds. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake at 370 degrees for 45 minutes.

3. About halfway through the baking, cook up some bacon.

4. Add dandelion greens to pan, cook three minutes.

5. Add bacon back to pan with maple syrup and pepper and cook together for a minute.

6. Remove sweet potato from oven, cut into cubes, and combine with food in the pan quickly.

Violets, the small, bright blue-purple yard flowers, are harbingers of spring and a delightful, vibrant purple addition to any salad. Yes, it does seem weird to add flowers to food, but violets strength the immune system, so now, more than ever, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to whip up a violet honey. You’ll need:

a jar

enough violets to fill the jar

enough honey to cover the violets

1. Pick a jar full of violets from outside.

2. Wash violets thoroughly and let them totally dry (wet violets will spoil the honey mixture).

3. When dry, fill jar with clean violets and pour honey over until jar is full or violets are fully covered.

4. Like any herbal honey infusion, you have to wait. Let violet honey sit for at least two days before using it. The longer it infuses, the stronger the taste. Don’t remove the violets from the honey when it’s time to use.

Chickweed is synonymous with spring, and spreads as quickly as a funny Twitter meme. Before it burns off in the summer, now is the best time it to use:

It’s pretty good in pesto. To make it, you’ll need:

2 cups chickweed

1/3 cup pine nuts

3/4 cup grated Parmasan cheese

2 garlic cloves (or 3 if you are like me and love garlic)

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1. Thoroughly wash chickweed. You want to use it freshly picked or within a day.

2. Pulse chickweed and pine nuts in a food processor or blender. Here, chickweed is taking the place of the traditional pesto green, basil.

3. Pulse cheese and garlic with it until mixed.

4. Add in olive oil until pesto is consistency you like. Stir in salt and pepper.