They are now ageing.
I don’t know what the temp/humidity is like in your shed over summer, but provided you haven’t stored the leaves too wet then mould won’t be an issue. Having removed the midrib/stem helps with this too, as they can hold more moisture than the rest of the leaf.
I find the best way to deal with whole leaf is to just forget about it.
If you are interested to see the impact of processing your leaf (beyond shredding etc which is technically processing too) then why not stove some? You can compare to the fresh stuff, and also aged.
Here’s what I have done, however there are different approaches depending on what you have on hand.
Weigh leaf and place in a jar with half of its weight in water, seal and then place jar in a slow cooker (crock pot) with water in it and then put on the low setting for 12-24 hours. Turn it off, let the jars cool before removing. Then either vacuum seal the leaf while it is still in high case (wet), or spread out on an oven tray and dry back down so it is safe to jar up and store.
You can do the same as above but with equal weights water on the high setting and you will get more of a natural unsweetened cavendish. As you dry this down it will return to a brown colour than black.
Play around with it. There’s heaps of info on fairtradetobacco forums
