Grape Leaves

Grape Leaves

Last year I planted 6 grape vines. This winter I chopped them back to almost nothing. They have proliferated to the point where they are much longer and larger already than they were last year. There may even be a few grapes this year. A grape vine takes 40 years to produce the really fine wine grapes. There is no need to wait so long to enjoy the fruits of the vine. Grapevines produce leaves even the 1st year.

The internet is loaded with grape leaf recipes. They are all some version of blanching the leaf and stuffing it and either boiling or baking it. Meat is not necessary. Seasoned rice or couscous or something like that will work fine. Most of the recipes call for ground beef, chicken or lamb. The seasonings are limitless. Grapes grow in almost every part of the world; so creative people everywhere have invented grape leaf recipes.

The deer have been eating the leaves on our grapevines; so there are not too many. There are fox grapes growing wild in the back of my office. We will try half and half tame grapes and wild grapes. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Here are some links to some good recipes. http://mideastfood.about.com/b/2006/08/02/warak-eineb-stuffed-grape-leaves-recipe.htm , http://greekfood.about.com/od/greekcookinglessons/ss/foldleaves.htm

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com/ , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.