Hi all,

We just had our first frost here in Manchester (just west of Augusta) and I guess I must have missed the frost warnings because it caught me by surprise. As a kid I remember that we cut the vines on our sweet potatoes before a frost so that the frozen vines wouldn't make the sweet potatoes somehow not good to eat. I don't remember whether it was a flavor issue or a safety issue.

My questions are: Is it safe to eat watermelons from frosted vines? I assume the ones that already have dead stems are OK, but those that have green stems concern me. Do the frozen/frosted watermelon vines somehow "poison" the melons? Can we harvest and eat our eggplants without fear that the frost has generated some sort of toxic content in them? And pole beans -- is it safe to pick them and cook them? Are the squash safe to eat? Our tomatoes have so many blemishes that they aren't an issue.

MM