Touchstone

Touchstone is the shortened trade form of Touchstone Gold, a golden beet bred by the Alf Christianson Seed Company of Mount Vernon, Washington, and it exists to fix the two things that made older golden beets frustrating to grow: patchy germination and roots that sized unevenly. Johnny's rates its germination as very good for a golden beet, and Adaptive Seeds notes it was also selected against zoning, the pale internal ringing that spoils both the look and the eating of yellow types. Unlike red beets, the pigment does not bleed — colour holds through cooking without staining the plate or the rest of the dish, which is why it appears in restaurant and CSA growing more often than raw yield alone would justify. It is open-pollinated, so growers can save seed from it. Bunched with a red and a Chioggia type it makes up the standard tricolour beet bunch.