Your local feria libre (farmers’ market) is THE place to buy your unpackaged and unprocessed groceries for the week: fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts, fish, eggs and cheese are available at most ferias, and many also offer dry goods and some semi-processed items such as hot pepper sauce and pre-cut salads.  According to the newspaper La Nación, in Santiago alone some 30,000 vendors sell fruits and vegetables to 70% of the population at 120 markets around the city.

Most ferias operate at a given location once or twice a week, from around 9:00 am to around 3:00 pm.  Since you pay as you go, you can usually get through and out of the feria much faster than you can from the supermarket.  Not to mention that the produce is usually less expensive and better quality than what you can get at the supermarket.

Sounds great, eh?  Now how do you find your local feria?  If you’ve just arrived in your neighborhood and don’t know anyone, you have several options, depending on your level of Spanish comprehension and the amount of free time you have.

1. Go up to a neighbor and ask her “Dónde se pone la feria? Y qué días?”
2. Walk in a spiral around your house or apartment every morning for a week, until you find one
3. Look online:

culturaenmovimiento.cl has a map of all of the ferias in Santiago, by comuna.  This map is pretty comprehensive but not necessarily up to date (for example, it doesn’t show Line 4 of the metro, which was inaugurated in 2005).

The Ministry of Agriculture has a list of ferias by comuna.  More accurate but less useful, especially if you’re not familiar with the street names in your comuna, and if your closest feria might be in a neighboring comuna.

Google Maps has two crowdsourced maps of Santiago ferias (See Ferias libres de Santiago and Ferias libres de santiago chile).  These maps aren’t complete but are more up to date than the above map and list.  Go ahead and add yours (when you find it)!

Vocab

• casero, casera this is what the vendors will call you, and what you should call them as well (casero to the men, casera to the women, of course)
• el cuarto a quarter kilogram, as in quinientos el cuarto (“500 pesos per quarter kilo”)
• el medio a half kilogram, as in quinientos el medio (“500 pesos per half kilo”)