How to preserve grape vine leaves

First harvest of our 2 grape vines is in! We're Turkish so sarma(dolma) is our staple. Who wants grapes when you get loads of grape leaves from your tiny garden??

590 leaves are all folded and bottled up.

We usually get around 4 to 5 harvests a year.

This technique allows gas to preserve the leaves and allow it to keep fresh for 10+ years. Learned it from my mother and she has learned this from the old ladies in her family.

Stories in the family say plastic coca cola bottles work best but glass jars work the same.

The leaves get washed only before preparing sarma, not before they go into jars. Otherwise they'll mold. The gases in the fresh leaves are what keep them well.

Hope this answers questions about the method!

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