Having survived a court challenge earlier this year, Tejon Mountain Village will feature 3,450 homes north of Gorman. | Click map to enlarge

Oil, pistachios and almonds. Nature’s bounty conspired to drive Tejon Ranch Co.’s profits to $118,000 (1 cent per share) for the quarter ending June 30 – a reversal of last year’s second-quarter loss of $638,000 when the almond crop underperformed.

Deferred income taken during the quarter from the sale of land in 2011 to Caterpillar didn’t hurt, either.

The 270,000-acre agribusiness-turned-developer north of Gorman posted revenues of $1,977,000 for the quarter, led by higher oil revenues as prices stayed strong and the company pumped up its production.

Farming revenues rose $615,000 on higher pistachio and almond sales revenues stemming from both a larger inventory carryover of the 2011 crop and higher prices, the company said.

“We also saw an improvement in equity in earnings of unconsolidated joint ventures during the period as a result of improved operating margins at our Petro/TA joint venture due to higher gasoline sales, and to improved revenues in our Rockefeller joint venture coming from the full lease up of a building with Dollar General in late 2011,” the company said in Thursday’s earnings report.

Eating into profits were added operating expenses of $1,467,000, which the company attributed to the timing of hiring employees and additional stock compensation paid out as key employees achieved performance benchmarks.

Perhaps most importantly for the company’s future, Tejon Ranch Co. cleared a major legal hurdle during the second quarter when a federal appellate court upheld its environmental report relating to the future Tejon Mountain Village development project.

Situated east of Lebec (which the company owns) and north of Gorman (which a different company owns), just north of the Los Angeles-Kern County border, Tejon Mountain Village will feature 3,450 homes, a 160,000-square-foot shopping center, two golf courses and up to 750 hotel rooms on 5,082 acres.

The company seems to have enough money to get started.

“Management believes that the capital structure of the company provides a solid foundation for future growth of the company,” the statement said.

Total capital as of June 30 was $303 million, and debts totaled less than 1 percent of that figure. It had $75 million in cash and securities, and $30 million in borrowing power to meet  short-term funding needs, it said.

Tejon Ranch Co. was founded on land amassed by Edward F. Beale in the 1850s – most of which land the company will transfer to the state of California as it builds homes and commercial structures on the remainder.