One of my favourite bloggers - Mari of Once Upon a Plate has a great post on preserving Grape Leaves.

You can find it here - Preserved Grape Leaves

This thread from GardenWeb's Harvest Forum contains a recipe from Linda Ziedrich's "The Joy of Pickling." Carol, aka Readinglady, wrote "All her recipes were vetted for safety and follow current canning standards." Carol is considered knowledgeable, so if she says the recipe is safe, it is.

My mother and grandmother used to pick young, tender grape leaves, blanch them, and then freeze them. That might be a good option too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Preserved Grape Leaves

Never even thought of the leaves.... I just wanted a couple of grape vines. Mostly, cause my grandpa had a winery... and I wanted them for nostalgia.

Just today I went out and bought two. They are to go in the ground tomorrow.

Now I have to read up on leaves. :)

Thanks

Moni

For some odd reason my family tradition at Thanksgiving is my mom making her much loved stuffed grapeleaves with venison. No-one is Greek here. I think we used to attend potluck community Thanksgiving dinners and fall is hunting season in Maine. She made them recently for another event - they are still delicious!

I don't remember where I got this method, buit it has always worked well for me. Quickly blanch the leaves in boiling water, shock in an ice bath and drain on towels. Roll and stand upright in a pint jar. Make a strong brine, and pour over the grape leaves. Lid and ring and store in the fridge. You have to rinse the brine off them before you use, but they are just fine.

Steve

I'm thinking now that I should start picking grape leaves and freezing them. I think I can blanche them after they've been frozen - at least I read that somewhere, and I do not know when I will be using them. Since I do not seem to get grapes from the grape vine, at lease it will be giving me something, and I do like stuffed grape leaves. I ate one grape leaf yesterday, and it was nice but very mild to the point of having almost no flavor.

Lars

I canned a few jars using the grape leaves off my vines last year.
I picked them in the morning, looked for saucer sized leaves yet picked some older ones to use on the bottom of the pot while cooking. Rolled them into a few bundles per jar (easier to remove)and used a recipe similar to Linda Ziedrich's recipe from The Joy of Pickling.
Grape leaves are expensive here, so I was thrilled to use my own that I know were free of pesticides :)

I used the pick/blanch/freeze method one year for a person I know through another forum. It's really easy but a little time consuming. The vine was in my back yard; no special variety (they may have been concord). I did this about 7 years ago and since I'm old, my memory may be a little off. If I find a description for the method I used, I'll post a link.

Pick leaves that are no larger than the palm of your hand. The larger leaves can be tougher.

Wash them and organize by size (there's a method to this madness). I used 10 leaves for each stack and it turned out well (and relatively easy to manage).

Blanch for 1 minute in boiling water and place in an ice bath to cool.

Drain on paper towels.

I think I separated each leaf with wax paper, wrapped the stack of 10 in wax paper followed by foil. Freeze.