"It's quite an honour to have reached this point," Dee said. "It's something we never thought we would ever do," she said, glancing toward longtime employee and baker, Barb Stokley, who has been with her from the start.

The mouth-watering tarts that now come in 11 different varieties are much in demand, not only in this part of the province but in the United States as well. Hamilton-born comedian Martin Short has had the savoury treat sent to him in Hollywood and regular shipments also go to a top executive at Reuters at Times Square in New York City.

"We could never understand why people wanted these things," Dee confided last week. But her tarts have become so popular that she has had to step up production in recent years. When she first began baking, she baked about 26,000 tarts a year. Now, she and her staff produce about 90,000 annually.

Dee began charting how many tarts were made during the first year of production. She keeps track of the numbers on a calendar in a side room of her store where the tarts are made.

She and Barb baked 13,000 tarts in the first seven months of 1997. "When we looked up how many we had made, we said, 'No wonder we're tired,'" Dee recalled with a laugh last week. By March of 2004, they had reached the 500,000 mark; over the next four years, another 500,000 came out of the ovens.

Counting the tarts became such an exact science that when Dee was asked to point out the one millionth tart last week, she did a quick calculation and declared, "It's the 16th tart on the 32nd rack."

Dee credits her mother, Terry Miller, for teaching her how to make pastry. Now 87, Miller was on hand last week to celebrate the important milestone. The store was decorated with 261 multi-coloured balloons for the occasion and everyone who bought a half dozen tarts was invited to burst a balloon to see if it contained a small slip of paper offering a prize. A gift certificate to a local restaurant, a free six-pack of tarts or a free single tart was offered as a prize. While the traditional butter tart with raisins remains very popular, patrons can also buy other varieties, including maple walnut, peanut butter, chocolate chip, pecan, coconut, and butterscotch chip. The store also sells other baked goods, such as chicken and beef pot pies, turnovers and cookies, "all made 100 per cent from our own ingredients," Dee said.

Asked what she plans to do with the one millionth tart, she said she'll add it to a special display case that will be installed on the store's "butter tart wall" which features copies of various newspaper and magazine stories about Dee's award-winning tarts. The see-through case will feature 10 tarts, starting with the 100,000th and continuing at the same increment until reaching the one millionth. The case will also feature the hollow glass rolling pin that Dee's mother used to show her how to make pastry. Ice cubes were dropped into an opening at one end of the rolling pin so the pastry wouldn't stick while being rolled out, Dee said while explaining how the process worked years ago.

The Valens store owner has another goal in mind when it comes to her butter tarts. But she's keeping it under wraps for now. One thing is certain--she's not ready to stop baking yet.

For more information about Dee and her tarts, visit her website at www.buttertartstodiefor.ca.