Your grandfather is right. If you were to go out before the sun hits the plants and wash the frost off with a hose there would be no damage to the plant.

We have had frosts when my strawberries were in bloom and I did spray them with the hose and those flowers produced berries. I am not an expert by any means and I'm sure someone has a scientific answer as to why, but like your grandfather I have seen from experience that what he says is true.

As to the bacon fat--well there are a lot of old wives tales. Some are good, some have a smidgeon of truth and some are complete hogwash.

Water drops on leaves acting like tiny magnifying glasses is an old wives tale. It's the expansion and bursting of vascular tissue that causes the damage.
As far as bacon fat goes I think it all depends on how the animal was raised and processed. My grandpa ate pork of some form (that he raised and butchered) every morning and lived to be over 100 with cancer. He refused any treatment for 30 years and said God would see after him. He was also extremely overweight from the time he was 50. He didn't have any skin problems though.

I covered everything last night, but found that a couple places were exposed because the wind knocked the tarp off. So at around 6:30, before the sun poked over the trees, I was out there watering those parts. Seems like they are doing okay. Glad I covered them. It was quite icy.

Why does the grass do so well despite frost??

Kim

Some plants are just made to take the cold and others the heat. Its like tomatoes and broccoli or impatiens and pansies. Tomatoes originally come from a much warmer climate and are not made to defend themselves from the cold, where broccoli and pansies are from colder climates and thrive in cooler weather.