POTUS: The Annual Pot Sale at Coombs' Goats on the Roof Market

Search POTUS and you will get the President of the United States. Ask a regular at the Coombs Old Country Market and you will get directions. For us, POTUS is the annual pot sale: once a year, rows and rows of pots appear on display at the market, from small planters to big glazed urns, lined up almost ceremonially and priced to clear.

To find it, head through the market grounds to the Mexican beer garden, then look just down from it and off to the right. That is where the pots go on display, and where we end up every single year. Dates, sizes and prices change from one year to the next, so if the pots are not where you expect them, ask inside the market.

What we can confirm: the prices are good, the selection is huge, and nothing makes a garden pot feel more special than carrying it past a roof full of goats.

The Coombs Old Country Market sits on Highway 4A, about 10 km west of Parksville, on the road most travellers take to Tofino and the west coast. It began in the early 1970s as a roadside fruit stand run by Norwegian immigrants Kris and Solveig Graaten. They added hamburgers for hungry drivers, and a few years later built the full market with the log walls and grass roof it is famous for. That sod roof was inspired by Kris's childhood home of Lillehammer, Norway.

The goats arrived by accident, and the story is local legend. As it is usually told, the grass on the roof grew long around the Coombs Fall Fair weekend, and some goats were borrowed to trim it after a few drinks. Visitors loved them, the goats stayed, and they have now grazed the roof for more than thirty years.

The goats are on the roof from about the May long weekend until late October and spend the winter on a nearby farm. The roof is not open to visitors, so you watch them from the ground, which somehow makes it better. It is one of the most photographed rooftops in Canada, featured by Atlas Obscura, Lonely Planet and countless road-trip guides.

Inside, the market is a maze of groceries and imports from around the world. Bloggers have found everything from Mexican vanilla to Australian Tim Tams and haggis-flavoured chips, plus produce, a deli, baked goods and souvenirs.

A POTUS run is never just about pots. When the bakery is open, the smell alone pulls you in, and in the summer the meat pies are the reason half of us show up hungry. Grab one warm and eat it watching the goats.

For something sweet, Billy G's Doughnuts is at the back of the market, down the alley. The market also has ice cream and a bistro for a proper sit-down.

Next door, Cuckoo Trattoria is the Italian landmark of Coombs, the place to go for pizza and pasta after a long morning of browsing. And if you want tacos and a margarita, Taqueria Cantina in Coombs has a lively outdoor patio. By the time you have eaten your way around, you will need a pot just to carry the leftovers.

The Old Country Market anchors a whole cluster of shops. The Coombs Emporium sits right next door, Wabi Sabi Boardwear sells surf, skate and clothing, and across the street the Coombs Village Centre has Statue Square, the Fairy Castle and more small stores. Nearby you will also find Butterfly World and local art galleries.

Our favourite thing in the whole place, though, has always been the cork pop guns. You pull the trigger, the cork shoots out of the end on its string, and you do it again about four hundred times. We loved them as kids, and we still check for them every year. POTUS is the excuse to go; the pop guns are the tradition.

• Where: Coombs Old Country Market, Highway 4A, about 10 km west of Parksville on Vancouver Island.
• When: the market is usually open daily from roughly March to December, about 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; shops vary. The pot sale is a yearly event, so check on site for this year's dates.
• Goats: on the roof from about the May long weekend to late October.
• Cost: free to walk in; you pay for what you buy.
• Parking: roadside parking fills fast in July, August and on weekends. There is more beside and behind the Village Centre, by the Fairy Castle. Take care turning back onto the highway.
• Time: allow an hour or more if you browse and eat, and longer on POTUS day.

When we are not hunting pots, Strategic Crypto Reserve builds tools for people planning very different projects. Our AI Build Configurator prices a full AI or crypto mining data center, state by state and province by province, and you can license it for your own website. It is about as far from a goat roof as you can get, and just as Vancouver Island.