If getting to the farmers market is hard for you, a new storefront just north of downtown Tucson will help you support local producers anyway.

The business, called Cook Tucson Market & Commissary, will sell products from nearly 30 local farmers market vendors. It will offer hot and refrigerated ready-to-eat foods from tamales to British-style “pasties,” frozen meats, as well as shelf-stable products, including cookies, pies and cooking sauces. Its grand opening is Aug. 7.

Cook Tucson is a commercial kitchen and Pima County Health Department-inspected venue where budding food entrepreneurs can prepare their products without the expense of maintaining their own facility. Prepared-food vendors must have a food handlers certificate from the Department of Health to use the commercial kitchen.

“The intent of Cook Tucson was always to operate as a commissary and market,” says owner and founder Corinne Tso, who opened the kitchen in 2017. “It’s ideal for a small food business that’s just getting started. We’re focused on helping those entrepreneurs produce local food products.”

Cook Tucson event coordinator Sue Ann Hockman cooked up the idea, you might say. Hockman is also the proprietor of Snowbird Pasties, selling her savory meat pies at the Steam Pump Ranch Heirloom Farmers Market in Oro Valley on Saturday mornings, and at the Rillito Park Heirloom Farmers Market on Sunday mornings. In winter, she also sells at the Green Valley Heirloom Farmers Market.

Hockman “really took the initiative to kick off the market concept,” says Tso. “This is our trial period, but it has the potential to expand. That part of the city really has no food markets. It’s a ‘food desert,’ the city calls it.”

Part of the thinking behind the market idea was motivated by self-interest, Hockman says.

“I came up with the idea partly because there’s not much happening in the summertime,” Hockman says. “And it will be nice to have something indoors so we’re not battling the heat.”

But, she says, “in thinking about how I could do more events and have more places to put my products, I began to think about what I could do to help other people.”

A big part of that help is that vendors can sell at the Cook Tucson Market & Commissary without the time needed to staff a farmers market booth, she says. “It takes time to staff a booth, and that takes away from the time those producers could spend on production.”

Michael Peel was delighted when he heard about Cook Tucson Market & Commissary. Peel is the Southern Arizona director of Local First Arizona, the Phoenix-based organization that provides support and promotion to Arizona producers of all types, including food producers.

“I think this is something that is very needed in this city,” Peel says. “With our UNESCO designation as a City of Gastronomy and the city’s lively food culture, this is an innovative way to address how consumers and producers can connect in our market.”

Peel sees the advantages for both sides of the market, he says. “It gives local producers a way to grow their businesses, and it’s an all-in-one way for customers to connect with our local food systems. It will increase their awareness of who’s producing local food. It’s a great way to get an easy lunch, too.”

A rotating collection of food trucks will also be on-site at the market, at 1702 N. Stone Ave., during its hours, one of which is Joe and Judy Hite’s Hot Pops Kettle Corn. The couple began their business in 2013, and their truck is normally stationed at locations around Tucson’s east side, Judy Hite says.

“We’re excited about doing the market for the visibility,” she says. “We promote our events on Facebook, but this gives us another way to reach people.”

For Heather Juarez, whose cookie business is just starting out, taking part in the market is “a no-brainer.”

Her Horsebox Bake Shop, a mobile bakery built from a converted horse trailer, creates chocolate chip cookies and other delicacies. “I was in the food service industry for 15 years, and I really miss it at times,” she says. “I started baking chocolate-chip cookies for fun last fall, sharing them with friends and co-workers. I got so many compliments and people asking why I didn’t sell them that the spark (for the business) was ignited.”

But like many startups, Horsebox Bake Shop needs to grow its recognition, she says. “I’m new to the scene, and I need to get my brand out there. I couldn’t think of a better way to do that than by being involved in this awesome venture.”

Other vendors will offer products that are available nowhere else.

Kevin Risner, a certified executive chef who owns the custom catering company Noah Mi Amore, says his sauces, rubs and prepared entrees aren’t available at farmers markets or other retail outlets. He says he’ll offer a barbecue sauce and a citrus sauce for fish and chicken; a barbecue rub, a seafood rub, and a rub for grilled vegetables; and one of his most popular items, pulled pork in frozen containers. He’s working on a vegetarian entrée as well, he says, and is thinking of a marinated grilled portobello mushroom and squash ratatouille packed over grilled polenta with fresh prickly pear salsa. He’ll also sell freshly cooked entrees at a booth outside the market, he says.

“The market provides an opportunity to broaden the scope of small businesses in Tucson,” Risner says, “and to emphasize the fact that the local and homegrown food scene here is very strong, very vibrant and very talented. It’s definitely a unique aspect of the food business in Tucson.”

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