Place your fermentation vessel on a kitchen scale and zero out the weight. Combine chard stalks, cardamom pods, black peppercorns, Aleppo pepper and dried ramp powder into your fermentation vessel.

Fill the vessel with water, covering all of the ingredients. Leave 1-2 inches of space at the top for the fermentation weight if using, and also for the pressure build up. Add 2% salt by weight. This means, if the weight of all of the ingredients in the step above is 2000 grams, you would add 40 grams of salt to the vessel. Close the vessel and move it around to dissolve all of the salt. This doesn’t have to be exact and can be adjusted to taste and preference.

Once dissolved, open the vessel and use a fermentation weight or even just a small piece of paper towel over the surface of the mixture to ensure that everything is submerged in liquid before sealing.

Place the vessel in a darker room temperature area that is out of any direct sunlight and allow 10-14 days to ferment (or until texture is firm but not stringy). Make sure to check on it at least once per day to relieve any pressure build up (if not using a pressure airlock). This pressure build up also indicates that fermentation is fully taking place.