diff --git a/pangeo_forge_recipes/serialization.py b/pangeo_forge_recipes/serialization.py
index e5eb30c6f..a44d5424c 100644
--- a/pangeo_forge_recipes/serialization.py
+++ b/pangeo_forge_recipes/serialization.py
@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@
 from enum import Enum
 from hashlib import sha256
 from json import dumps
+import dis
+import io
+from contextlib import redirect_stdout
 from typing import Any, List, Sequence
 
 
@@ -19,7 +22,24 @@ def either_encode_or_hash(obj: Any):
     elif hasattr(obj, "sha256"):
         return obj.sha256().hex()
     elif inspect.isfunction(obj):
-        return inspect.getsource(obj)
+        try:
+            return inspect.getsource(obj)
+        except OSError as e:
+            # If the function is coming from something that was `exec`d (as pangeo-forge-runner is)
+            # or a lambda, inspect.getsource doesn't work. In that case, we construct something as
+            # stable as possible. However, this is *not* guaranteed to be stable across major
+            # python versions. But I *think* that is fine?
+            if e.args == ('could not get source code',):
+                    codeobj = obj.__code__
+                    # Name of
+                    name = codeobj.co_name
+                    args = codeobj.co_varnames[:codeobj.co_argcount]
+                    # This is not guaranteed to be stable across python versions unfortunately
+                    body = codeobj.co_code
+                    return f"{name}({', '.join(args)}): {body}"
+                with redirect_stdout(io.StringIO()) as f:
+                    dis.dis(obj)
+                return obj.__name__ + "-n" + f.getvalue()
     raise TypeError(f"object of type {type(obj).__name__} not serializable")