The street markets in Montevideo are called the "feria." They are on a regular schedule and they are throughout the city. The merchants register for a specific location on the street for a specific day. Most of the ferias are on a residential street and the street gets blocked off for that day.
The feria starts early in the morning. Most of the merchant stalls are set up between 7am and 8am. Those of us who live here have scouted the ferias in our neighborhoods and we know which ones we want to shop in.
Most ferias have at least one very good fruit and vegetable merchant. They prices are higher than the other stalls, but the quality of the produce in their stands is worth the few extra pesos.
There will be a some mix of medium and poor quality merchant stalls, depending on the neighborhood. In certain expensive locations, the feria will be mostly the high quality merchants. Their fruits and vegetables will be very well presented and of the highest quality.
There is an art to getting the best deals for the produce you want to buy. You start at one end of the feria and you walk and look at the quality and the prices. When you have seen enough (some ferias are 1 block long and others may be as much as 5 blocks long) you walk back through and stop and buy what you have seen as the best deals.
Some merchants get most of their produce directly from the farmers. Others get all their product from the Mercado Modelo (the centralized farmers market). If the produce has gone through the Mercado Modelo, it has prbably been gassed, irradiated, or otherwise treated as required for fresh produce by the city's health and sanitation laws. If the produce comes directly from the farmer, it has probably only been exposed to the fertilizers and pesticides of the growing process.
