Listeners to Dirty Spoon may recall journalist Anna Nguyen from our episode where she profiled and interviewed Chris Scott, from the show Top Chef. Since then, Anna has relocated from Montreal to Cambridge/Boston to take a position as a research fellow at Harvard. We catch up on what it is like living in the city during lockdown, and the racist blowback one can feel just for being an Asian-American out for a jog during a pandemic. Find Anna's work at www.ilostmyappetite.com

With restaurants closed and Farmer's Markets drastically sized down, local farmers are left with a ton of food in the ground and nowhere for it to go. For a lot of beginning farmers, it's causing them to innovate in ways they didn't expect when they got into the game. Nicole DelCogliano of the Organic Grower's School catches us up to speed on what is happening with Western North Carolina farmers. For more information on the Organic Grower's School, head to organicgrowersschool.org

Chef Joe Marple catches us up on the final results of the Asheville Hot Sauce Battle: where 32 local contestants duked it out for the crown of Best Hot Sauce. Plus, we play another rousing game of Pantry Raid, solving listeners conundrums as to what to do with hard to work with pantry goods!

Brooks Reitz has his hand in a great many pots. In addition to being a founder of the Jack Rudy Cocktail Co., Brooks runs 4 restaurants; Leon’s Oyster Shop, Little Jack’s Tavern, Monza Pizza, and Melfi's. We catch up on the state of Charleston heading into the reopenings, and what it looks like to try to run 4 restaurants in the middle of a national shutdown, and how Brooks stays so resilient during it all.

The Outer Banks of North Carolina can't seem to catch a break right now. After a hurricane ravaged the region at the tail end of their season, the Covid-19 has shut everything down again just as the season was supposed to start picking up. That can be devastating to a region that relies on tourism. We talk with Outer Banks vineyard manager John Wright of Sanctuary Vineyards about what they are doing to get by and what the future looks like for wineries. To try their wines, head to www.sanctuaryvineyards.com

Nothing like a good, ol' fashioned hot sauce competition to help us get through this lockdown, right? Today we chat with Justin Ferraby, who, together with Joe Marple and IamAVL is hosting the Asheville Hot Sauce Battle, a competition between a few dozen restaurants and amateurs alike for the mantle of best hot sauce in Asheville. Justin also catches us up on what the future looks like for the Orange Peel, one of Asheville's most iconic music halls, and how they plan to stay afloat.

Alice Gohan moved to London over a year ago, and almost immediately she began missing the food from her home in Hong Kong. So she did what anyone would do in her shoes, she called her mom for the recipe, and learned to make it herself. Her instagram feed @chopsticksandapint is a wellspring of classic Cantonese dishes and recipes. We chat with Alice about what it's like living in London during this pandemic and about the food she misses sharing with family.

Home Fried Episode #18 -- Asheville Strong with Catherine Campbell by Dirty Spoon Radio Hour

For nearly a century, Asheville built its economy around tourism. After the recession in 2008, it doubled down on that bet. But as the coronavirus lockdown stretches into yet another month, it leaves local entrepreneurs and politicians alike asking if that model is sustainable. We dedicate the whole hour to the questions of how we got here, and what happens when this is all over?

Cass Herrington is the host of Morning Edition on Blue Ridge Public Radio, and is a reporter covering immigrant communities in Western North Carolina. Her current work revolves around farming systems and how they are being impacted by Covid-19. She also helped found and cohost Skillet, a podcast about the intersection of food and memory. Jon talks with her about how producing a show about food has impacted the way she approaches her work as a journalist.