I made this last night and our house guest was floored at how easy, and delicious it was. THANK YOU, HANS! I did cheat though, I used the Freshlike frozen vegetables for stew, and it worked perfectly. Just put the frozen veggies in as you would fresh ones. The potatoes did turn to mush just like fresh ones.
As for the crock pot, according to the recipe above from the Rival Crock Pot booklet that Doug posted, this can be done. The recipe says 10-12 hours on low.