A heirloom from the family of the famed psychic Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) — better known as the ‘Sleeping Prophet’ for his ability to read into the future and the past while in a trance-like sleep.
This tomato dates to pre-1930s Kentucky. It was grown in Fulton County, Kentucky (Ebenezer and Miller areas) by his family. Although we couldn’t track down who exactly in the Cayce family was growing this tomato, Edgar Cayce did indeed grow up on a farm in Hopkinsville, Kentucky and his family does have a long history in the state. And Edgar himself was a life-long avid gardener.
Our original seedstock came from Forgotten Heirlooms (Ohio) – and their original seedstock came from the Kentucky seed collector Kris Hubbard who recorded the tomato’s history.
The Cayce Joy Red Heirloom tomato is a beautiful plant with robust potato leaves and crimson-pink to red fruit.
Potato leaves – which are large, rugose leaves that resemble the leaves of a potato plant – are not common in tomato plants, and when a variety has this type of leaf it suggests it is an old cultivar* (see note below).
The fruits of Cayce Joy are large, meaty and mildly sweet, with few seeds. Our largest tomato was 1 pound 2 oz. This tomato makes perfect slices for sandwiches and burgers. The trade-off with large tomatoes, however, is that you won’t have a lot of them. And the fruits ripen later. The Cayce Joy Red Heirloom is a late tomato for us (Zone 4) – and we suggest you grow this variety in a warm, south spot in your garden or in a greenhouse.
How to Plant: Start seeds indoors 6 weeks before the last frost. Plant seed 5mm (¼ inch) deep. Transplant after the danger of frost has passed/later spring.
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*Note: Please note that sometimes regular leaf plants appear for this variety. We did a bit of sleuthing – and mixed leaf types can occur in older cultivars. In fact, none other than the famed landrace breeder Joseph Lofthouse explained why this phenomenon might occur in a post on permies.com. He writes: “It is perfectly possible, in older heirloom varieties for both potato-leaved and regular-leaved to be present in a variety. And for it to be a pure variety, even with both leaf types being present. Perhaps the variety was selected for shape and colour of the fruit, without regard to leaf shape. Fifty to 100 years ago, people didn’t esteem stability and uniformity as the ideal way to grow tomatoes.”
