Originally posted by Darchias:

Is there a way to pull items "stuck in the tar" out, or is the only way to farm tar to drag the slimes out of the tar and kill them?

Kill all growths while using poison resist pot.
Drain Tar pit. That's right, drain it... use that pickaxe of yours and drain it.
Then go in and pick everything up, some things you find may even surprise you, last night I found a lot of gold and blackiron scraps at the bottom of the tar pit.