Ina Arnett is celebrating her 100th birthday today. She lived on a farm for 58 years before she moved in 1993 to Lawrence. “I like the farm better than town,” she said of her rural home near Melvern. “You have more freedom out there on the farm and fresh air.”

Simple, honest living might be the key to longevity — at least for Ina Arnett, who is celebrating her 100th birthday today.

“I worked hard all my life. I did about everything there is on a farm to do,” Arnett said of her long and busy life. She lived on a farm that raised corn, soybeans and various livestock for 58 years until moving to Lawrence in 1993.

“I cooked. I sewed. I picked blackberries. One summer I picked and canned 100 quarts of blackberries,” Arnett said. The family raised and slaughtered its own meat and made featherbeds and pillows from its ducks and chickens.

She also was an avid quilter, as evidenced by a photo album full of pictures of her handiwork, complete with labels with the date and name of the lucky recipient — mostly newlyweds and grandchildren.

She still crochets, although she relies on feeling, rather than seeing, the yarn now that her eyesight is less than perfect.

“I like the farm better than town. You have more freedom out there on the farm and fresh air,” she said of her rural home near Melvern. “I just miss it.”

On her birthday weekend, she is surrounded by her children: Carol, Francis and Norma. A table in her Drury Place apartment is covered with well-wishing cards, flowers and even a letter from “The Today Show’s” Willard Scott.

Carol Arnett was ready with stories about her mother — for example, how she’d buy matching flour sacks from which she’d make dresses.

Glancing at her mother, she observed, “I hope I look that good when I’m 100, if I make it to 100.”