Beets.. disease or weed???

[patty_b]

My 80 yr. Mother says she never in her life has seen anything like this, so I tend to believe it might not be all that common in her zone 5 West Virginia garden. I surely couldn't tell her what it was but knew that I could get an answer here. It is only on the beets and there was not a place where we could find the golden strands coming up from the ground. What is this??