Edible, Inedible
The caller throws the ball and names a thing: catch it if the thing is edible, bat it away if it is not.
Edible, inedible is a game in which the ball tests not agility but speed of thought. The hands react before the head does: you hear the word and you have already caught it, and only then work out that you have caught a stone.
That lets the play with rhythm as well as words. Several edible things in a row, then an abrupt inedible one, and the hand catches out of habit.
The ball is not sports equipment here
Throws are gentle and from close by: the point is not to beat a defence but to force a decision.
So the game works equally well for two players and for a whole line of them, and it is one of the few yard games in which physical fitness decides nothing.
Ball
Under these rules: One ball for the game.
A ball equally easy to catch and to push away.
A volleyball or a mid-sized rubber ball. Too large a ball is awkward to bat away one-handed; too small a one is awkward to catch.
The rules of Edible, Inedible
Standing
The players form a line. The caller stands facing them, some three paces off.
Play
The caller throws the ball to a player and at the same moment names a thing aloud: an apple, milk, a glass, a pen.
If the thing named is edible, the ball must be caught. If it is not, it must be batted away with the hands or allowed to pass untouched.
Mistakes
A is catching something inedible or letting something edible go by. Touching the ball with the hands on an inedible word is a mistake too.
Whoever errs changes places with the caller.
Order
The caller works along the line in turn, but may also come back to whoever has just answered, to break the rhythm.
Worth knowing
Disputed words — mushrooms, ice, chewing gum — are settled on the spot, and usually in the player's favour. Whether hesitation counts as a mistake is likewise agreed.
Glossary of terms
- Caller
- The player who throws the ball and names the thing.
- Mistake
- Catching something inedible, or letting something edible go by.