Covered Bridge Potato Chips! Old Dutch Potato Chips!

Covered Bridge Potato Chips are made in Hartland, New Brunswick. Frankie, Chance and me love potato chips, don't you?

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I live on Sparkle Road with my buddy, Grandpa James. He's really old. He was the second Canadian to get off Noah's Ark, you know.

 Oh. Wait! Chance lives with us, too. He's a newborn cubby someone left in a basket on our doorstep. He's a wee little thing. He's so newborn he doesn't have any teeth. He only drinks chocolate owls' milk.  I look after Chance, too. He climbs way high on things and can't get down. He won't wear his diaper. He's a handful!

 Oh. Wait! Frankie lives with us, too. He's our cousin. Frankie's four.  Frankie Facebooks with Her Majesty. She knighted him, you know. Frankie is the Knight of Knewfoundland and the Lord of Labrador.

My favouritest flavours are lobster and I like Grandma's apple pie potato chips, too. Frankie likes the chocolate explosion potato chips and the poutine chips, too. Chance doesn't have any teeth. He just licks them all.

Today we're taking a tour of the Covered Bridge Potato Chip factory. Potato chips are yummy and that's one of the four food groups in Canada's Food Guide. There are lots of potatoes in New Brunswick. Lucky potatoes get to be potato chips when they grow up. All the potato chips from Covered Bridge are russets.

Grandpa James says the Hartland Covered Bridge is 391 metres (1,283-feet) long. That's pretty long but Grandpa James says winter is longer.

I know why it's called Covered Bridge Potato Chip Company, Limited. That 'cuz the world's longest covered bridge is in Hartland.

The Hartland Bridge is on the $1,000 bill!

There's another potato chip factory in Hartland, too. It's called Old Dutch. They make yummy potato chips, too. Potato chips are good for growing bear cubs, you know.

Potato chips are tasty, you know. I could eat a lot of them!

Not all potatoes get to be potato chips when they grow up. Some of them get to be French fries. French fries come from New Brunswick, too. They come from McCain's in Florenceville. That's just down the river road from Hartland.

I will tell you a secret. Not all potatoes come from New Brunswick. Some of them are from Prince Edward Island. They're called spuds.

We have the storybook Bud the Spud. Grandpa James reads it to us. I could be a transport driver when I grow up. I could drive the big red Ford through the bright red mud. I would take the spuds to T.O. I know how to get from Charlottetown to Toronto. I just turn right on the big road, the the Trans-Canada!

Know what? Potatoes from PEI are like Smarties, 'cuz they have their own song. Frankie and me learned the song at the Scruffy Maple Day Care Centre. We sing it with our buddy Stompin' Tom. Push the button and you can sing it with us! It goes like this--

Bud the Spud 

Tom Conners

Chorus:
Well it's Bud the Spud, from the bright red mud,
Rollin' down the highway smilin',
The spuds are big on the back of Bud's rig,
There from Prince Edward Island,
There from Prince Edward Island.

Now from Charlottetown, or from Summerside,
They load him down for the long long ride;
He jumps in the cab and he's off with the Pride Sebagoes.
He's gotta catch a boat to make Tormentine,
Then he hits up that old New Brunswick line,
Through Montreal he comes just a flyin'
With another big load of potatoes.

Chorus
Now the Ontario Provincial Police don't think much of Bud,
Well, the cops have been lookin' for the son of a gun
That's been rippin' the tar off the four-O-one;
They know the name on the truck shines up in the sun --
"Green Gables."
But he hits Toronto and at seven o'clock,
He backs her up again' the terminal dock,
And the boys gather `round just to hear him talk
About another big load of potatoes. 
 
Now I know a lot of people from east to west
And they like the spuds from the island best,
`Cause they stand up to the hardest test --
Right at the table;
So when you see that old truck rolling by,
Kinda wave your hand or wink your eye,
`Cause that's Bud the Spud, from old P.E.I.
With another big load
He's got another big load 
of the best potatoes that's ever been growed,
And they're from Prince Edward Island!

Did you hear that? Grandpa James is hollering, "Where are my handsome bear cubs? Where are my Sons of Windsor? Where are my Princes of Ontario? That's me! Charles! That's Chance! We're handsome bear cubs. We're Sons of Windsor and Princes of Ontario! We gotta go find Grandpa James so we can get our ears tickled and our noses kissed.

Grandpa James is hollering, "Where's my handsome Frankie? Where's my Knight of Knewfoundland and my Lord of Labrador? That's Frankie! He's our Knight of Knewfoundland! He's our Lord of Labrador!

This is me, Charles the Bear Cub saying, "Be good citizens. Eat more potatoes. You can eat Smarties and drink root beer, too. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house! We can eat potato chips and French fries together! Okay! Over and out!"