Russell Smith traded a radio career for life on the farm.

We spend our time chasing down tips on where movies like “The Three Stooges” and “American Reunion” are filming, but decided to check out a somewhat smaller picture the other day.

The Macon-based Georgia Farm Bureau had sent a camera crew to the Paulding County Farmers Market to shoot a commercial to air on YouTube, the RFD-TV network and numerous other channels. Farm to cable!

Off we went. Not so fast.

“I don’t talk to the media,” the cameraman said after wrapping a scene involving some tomatoes.

He kindly pointed us toward colleagues who could help us, although we hadn’t really pegged the Farm Bureau as a have-your-people-call-my-people kind of outfit.

Into these artistic differences strode Russell Smith who, despite having a bit of show-biz background, was happy to talk. He worked in local radio as a chief engineer from 1998 to 2008, when he decided life would look a lot better from behind the wheel of a John Deere 250 Skid Steer (touted on the John Deere website as the machine “for the upwardly mobile.”)

Smith’s family has owned farmland for generations and the soil eventually called him home. “It doesn’t pay nearly as much, but there’s no general manager screaming at you,” he chuckled.

In his radio days Smith worked with Atlanta personalities Cadillac Jack, Dallas McCade and, in a bit of horticultural foreshadowing, Rhubarb Jones.

“I miss the people,” Smith said. “When you’re in the tractor six hours a day it gets mighty lonely. But when you look back at 4 p.m. and you’ve mowed 30 acres, that’s gratifying.”

He also produces produce from his 2-acre garden, some of which he was selling at the market. “I’ve been with them every day since they were a seed,” he said, hoisting a watermelon the size of a 3-month-old. “There’s no better reward than to give somebody something to eat.”

Hungry? Smith and other farmers sell delicacies from their dirt from 3 to 7 p.m. Fridays through Nov. 18 at 2515 Marietta Hwy., at the intersection of Ga. Hwy. 92 and HwyGa. 120. If you want to see the commercial featuring the market, our people at the Farm Bureau say it will start airing at the end of the month. See www.rfdtv.com or www.farm-monitor.com for information.

- Jennifer Brett/The Buzz/jbrett@ajc.com