When slow cooking a roast lay it on a bed of potatoes or whatever other sides you want, fill the water to the top of the veggies (or taters) then soak the roast in your sauce of choice. Gravity and heat will help the sauce work into the veggies giving them a nice flavor. The roast pretty much always comes out perfectly moist and you get amazing veggies out of the deal.
And the horde of people they hired to weave the copper mesh should themselves be hailed as heroes. Some enthusiasts actually got a guidance unit back up after more than 50 years and it was perfectly capable of still preforming it’s intended mission. As long as they give it the inputs it needs the machines left work about as well as they did originally.