Preparing Cow Dung For Fuel

 

One of the wonderful things about cow dung (gober) is that it can be dried and used as fuel for cooking. Cows eat a variety of leaves, grass, wheat stalks, grains, and so on, and chew everything thoroughly hence, their gober is composed of many combustible fibers. An adult cow passes on the average of thirteen times a day so there is always ample gober to harvest in any barn. The cowherd men and women knead the gober into melon-size balls and stick them on the wall to dry in the sun. In good weather they dry in 3-4 days and are then collected and stored near the kitchen to provide fuel for cooking.

 

In the villages of India it is common to find dried cow-dung patties (khande) stacked in a variety of ways and plastered with a layer of gober in which designs are drawn while still wet. These small storehouses of gober supply the villagers with fuel during the monsoon and winter seasons when the sun is weak and cannot dry fresh gober effectively. Anyone who has eaten chapaties (flat bread) cooked on a gober fire can testify how this fuel enhances their taste.



People often say that humans have always eaten animals as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times.

Isaac Bashevis, Nobel Prize 1978