LAKE ELSINORE —— Rick Carpenter has been operating his antique shop on Main Street for only about four months, but he already knows there's one day every month when business will boom.

It's the one Sunday when Main Street is shut down and the Downtown Merchants Association holds its open-air market.

For almost 10 years now, the market has been drawing hundreds to Main Street to shop at streetside booths manned by a wide variety of vendors —— with dealers selling everything from shoes and socks to antiques and jewelry.

Beginning next month, the market is adding a new feature: a farmer's market.

According to Ruth Atkins, a member of the merchants association's board of directors, the Jan. 22 market will include vendors offering a new kind of merchandise.

"People can expect fresh fruits, fresh produce, nursery plants," she said Thursday. "They can get just about anything that they normally sell at a farmer's market."

Organizers had to apply for and get approval from the county before moving forward with plans for the farmer's market, Atkins said.

Word that the association is expanding the market is good news to Main Street merchants such as Carpenter. The market so far has proven to be a benefit to the local businesses, he said, and this new feature he believes will only draw more shoppers.

"We get a lot of people that come into the store," Carpenter said. "(The farmer's market) should bring in a ton of business. Anybody that's not open on that day is an idiot."

Atkins said Thursday that organizers are still working to book vendors for the farmer's market, but the association already has received many phone calls from interested parties.

Though it isn't clear how many vendors will be selling their produce and other items, Atkins said that the beefed up open-air market will continue to serve the merchants association's purpose in promoting the downtown area.

"A lot of our residents are busy with their jobs and so forth, so they don't really get a chance to see what's on Main Street," Atkins said. "The market is an opportunity to come out and see what's going on downtown. It adds to the small city atmosphere that you don't find in many places."

Contact staff writer Jose Carvajal at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or jcarvajal@californian.com.